(7ey) Renewable Bulk Chemicals Production Using Porous Catalytic Materials: A Mechanistic Perspective

With the shale gas revolution, the availability of cheap and abundant natural gas may pose a threat to biofuels production, on the other hand, it opens exciting new opportunities for the renewable production of a selection of bulk chemicals. The shift to lighter shale gas feeds results in a tight global supply of C3/C4 olefins (propylene and butadiene) and aromatics benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX). Therefore, on-purpose renewable production routes for the aforementioned building blocks are desired to make up the shale-gas-related scarcity and shift to a more sustainable chemical industry in the future. In this regards, my postdoctoral research focused on the mechanistic understanding of renewable butadiene production from tetrahydrofuran in porous zeolite materials using a combined density functional theory (DFT) calculations, experiments and microkinetic modeling approach. On the basis of reaction pathway studies, important factors that affect reactivity and selectivity, specifically the zeolite pore size, acid type (Brønsted vs. Lewis) and strength were also investigated as part of an effort to develop structure-reactivity relationships that could lead to rational design of more efficient zeolite catalysts for the reaction. Future plans will utilize the knowledge obtained from the butadiene chemistry to find other applications in biobased olefins and aromatics production, to discover new biobased routes with higher transformation efficiency, and to design zeolite materials with superior performance in biobased bulk chemicals production.

Teaching Interests:

Thermodynamics, Chemical Kinetics, Chemical Reaction Engineering.