Abstract

Rising atmospheric concentration of CO2 is forecasted to have potentially disastrous effects on the environment from its role in global warming and ocean acidification.  Converting CO2 into valuable chemicals and fuels is one of the most practical routes for reducing CO2 emissions while fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy sector.  In the past few years our group has investigated the catalytic reduction of CO2 using a combination of kinetic studies, in situ characterization and density functional theory calculations.  In this talk we will present several examples on (1) CO2 conversion by thermocatalysis, (2) CO2 reduction by electrocatalysis, and (3) simultaneous upgrading of CO2 and shale gas. We will use these examples to highlight the importance of using fundamental chemical engineering principles to guide the selection of reaction conditions and catalyst compositions.  

Biography

Jingguang Chen is the Department Chair and Thayer Lindsley Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University, with a joint appointment at Brookhaven National Laboratory.  He received his PhD degree from the University of Pittsburgh and carried out his Alexander von Humboldt postdoctoral research in KFA-Julich in Germany.   After spending several years as a staff scientist at Exxon Corporate Research Laboratories, he started his academic career at the University of Delaware in 1998 and rose to the rank of the Claire LeClaire Professor of chemical engineering and the Director of the Center for Catalytic Science and Technology.  He moved to Columbia University in 2012.  He is the co-author of 23 United States patents and 430 journal publications and he is recognized as a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher. He is currently the President of the North American Catalysis Society and an Associate Editor of ACS Catalysis.  He received many awards, including the 2015 George Olah award from the American Chemical Society, the 2017 Robert Burwell Lectureship from the North American Catalysis Society, and the 2020 R.H. Wilhelm Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Contact the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering for the Zoom link.

Seminar sponsored by the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.