The Value of Catalysis
By Bob Weber
Catalysts accelerate the rates of chemical reactions without being consumed in the reaction. They permit the use of less intense reaction conditions, smaller and typically cheaper reactors, and a higher selectivity towards the desired products. Selectivity enhances the utilization of feedstocks and lessens the scale and complexity of downstream separations. The resulting combination of smaller capital costs and smaller operating costs makes the use of catalysts ubiquitous in the production of fuels, chemicals, materials such as polymers, and in pollution abatement (for example, the catalytic converters that treat tailpipe emissions on all modern vehicles and power plants). Read more.
Top Five Things Learned About Creating Catalysts to Store and Release Energy
Since 2009, researchers at the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis (CME), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the DOE Office of Science Office of Basic Energy Sciences, have answered fundamental questions about what makes catalysts work. Their top five answers are… Read more
90 Seconds of Discovery:
Catalytic Choreography
Recent research by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Institute for Integrated Catalysis is uncovering some of the forces that thwart biofuel production, and these discoveries can lead to the design of more efficient processes to make renewable fuel. Watch this video and learn more.
February 2015
Catalysis News & Research:
Renewable Fuel from Algae. A process that produces biocrude oil from green algae has received a 2015 Excellence in Technology Transfer award from the Federal Laboratory Consortium. Read more.
Small but Tough: Iridium Nanoparticles Resist Deactivation in Biofuel Production. Steam reforming turns methane from biomass into a mixture that can be further converted into transportation fuels. Read more.
Weaving a Catalyst. A popular aluminum oxide has been created by interlacing different crystal forms. Read more.
Johannes Lercher Named Distinguished Chemical Engineering Lecturer at Yale. Johannes Lercher, Director of PNNL's Institute for Integrated Catalysis gave the Yale University Barnett F. Dodge Lecture November 12, 2014, about the elementary class of catalyzed transformations for biofuels. Read more.
Cheap Catalyst Gets Expensive Accessory. A palladium-iron catalyst can help remove troubling oxygen for biofuel reaction. Read more.
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