Pacific Rim Symposium on Surfaces, Coatings and Interfaces (PacSurf 2018)
    Nanomaterials Monday Sessions
       Session NM-MoE

Paper NM-MoE7
Large Scale Production of Nanoparticle Catalysts for Biomass Conversion Processes

Monday, December 3, 2018, 7:40 pm, Room Naupaka Salon 5

Session: NanoCatalysis
Presenter: Richard Brutchey, University of Southern California
Authors: E.J. Roberts, University of Southern California
L. Wang, University of Southern California
F. Baddour, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
D. Ruddy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
S. Habas, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA
N. Malmstadt, University of Southern California
R.L. Brutchey, University of Southern California
Correspondent: Click to Email
In order to realize more sustainable routes for the conversion of biomass into useful liquid fuels, the use of lower-cost and more Earth-abundant catalysts is required. This necessitates the development of advanced catalysts that promote the desired transformations (e.g., hydrogenation, deoxygenation), while resisting deactivation, and that can be produced cost-effectively at relevant scales. Advances in the controlled synthesis of colloidal nanoparticle catalysts have resulted in the demonstration of promising catalytic performance for these materials, with Earth-abundant transition metal and transition metal carbide nanoparticles representing two such examples. Research by our team has focused on developing chemistry that enables precise control over nanoparticle catalyst phase and/or morphology. This presentation will focus on recent developments regarding the translation of these chemistries to continuous flow reactors for nanoparticle catalyst scale up. A key metric for scale up is ensuring that the resulting nanoparticles synthesized in flow are functionally equivalent to those produced in small (mL) batch reactors. The catalytic performance of these nanoparticles will be compared between those produced in batch and continuous flow, and further compared to their “bulk” material equivalents, for key transformations of model biomass compounds.