Welcome to Catalysis for A Sustainable Environment

Catalysis for A Sustainable Environment: Philosophy

We are committed to applied and fundamental research to enhance the world’s environment. Our research activities address critical issues of importance to a sustainable future including clean air, alternative energy sources such as materials for the hydrogen economy and managing green-house gases by capture and conversion to useful products.

Fossil fuels will continue to be a primary source of energy whereby their combustion contributes to global warming via CO₂ production. We have developed a dual function material (DFM) containing an adsorbent and catalyst that capturing CO₂ from flue gas and with the addition of renewable H₂ from water electrolysis via (solar, wind, etc.) catalytically converts it to synthetic natural gas (CH₄). This minimizes emissions of CO₂, generates re usable CH₄ fuel thereby deceasing the need for extracting natural gas from the earth, while using excess renewable energy. The DFM is positioned in the flue gas exhaust at one single temperature capturing CO₂ and catalytic converting it to CH₄ which is recycled to the front end of the plant closing the carbon balance. Process scale up studies are in progress.

We seek clean air via catalytic pollution abatement using heterogeneous supported catalysts. Applications in emission control from vehicles and stationary sources are a primary focus. We seek cost effective catalytic materials with sustained life to reduce emissions of toxic gases.

We develop new catalysts and cost effective processes to convert infrastructure fuels (natural gas, ethanol and sulfur-containing liquid fuels) to generate hydrogen for the emerging hydrogen economy. This technology will serve as a temporary solution while renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind are being developed.