Catalysis Achievements and Needs for the Refinery of the Future

As we wish to gradually transform our society in a more sustainable and circular one, it is important to revisit our main chemical production complexes, thereby aiming to build the so-called refinery of the future. This requires a.o. new needs from a chemistry and chemical engineering point of view, including the development of new or improved catalyst materials as well as novel reactor concepts, thereby increasingly making use of green electrons and hydrogen. For example, for the catalytic activation of small molecules, such as CO2, one of the main questions to answer involves the coupling of carbon fragments, originating from CO2, either produced at point sources, or harvested from direct air capture units. The goal is to manufacture increasingly complex carbon-containing molecules from CO2 - or the related molecule CO - instead of making them from crude oil fractions and natural gas. This requires a profound knowledge of the physicochemical processes taking place at the catalytic surface of both thermo- and electrocatalytic activation processes of CO2, was well as of the subsequent chemical conversion processes in which carbon monoxide (Fischer-Tropsch synthesis), methane (via C-H activation to make e.g. olefins and aromatics) and methanol (methanol-to-hydrocarbons process) are used. Next to pasting smaller molecules, such as CO2 and CO, together, we also have to learn more how to cut larger molecules into useful chemicals and fuels. That requires that we know how to selectively convert biomass (e.g., lignin, chitin, and cellulose) into base chemicals, as well as how we have to efficiently process plastic waste to strive for a closed carbon cycle. This is the topic of this lecture, in which I will discuss different old and new catalyst materials for cutting renewable resources, including plastic and biomass waste into useful chemicals, as well as different catalyst materials for pasting small molecules, including CO and CO2, into larger hydrocarbons.

Speaker:  Bert Weckhuysen, Utrecht University

This is lecture 1 of 2. The second one will be held on February 28, 2024.