Clean Fuels & Catalysis

The mission of the Clean Fuels and Catalysis Program is to promote comprehensive, efficient and environmentally-friendly utilization of hydrocarbon resources for making and using clean fuels and chemicals through catalytic and chemical research. Applied catalysis coupled with reaction chemistry and processing research will become more and more important for environmentally-benign processing in fuels, chemical, and power industries in the 21st century. Our vision is that applied catalytic research will promote potential practical applications of new and improved processes, catalysts, absorbents and reaction chemistry.

Our program is recognized as an active center of applied catalytic and chemical research in areas of ultra-clean fuels, chemicals, and materials that are important to the society at large. Current research focuses on ultra-clean fuels, chemicals, applied catalysis, reaction chemistry, new materials and new processing methods related to energy conversion, energy utilization, chemical processing, and environmental protection.

Research

• Production of advanced thermally-stable jet fuels using petroleum- and coal-based feedstocks
• Catalytic reforming of natural gas to produce syngas and hydrogen
• Deep desulfurization of diesel fuels, jet fuels and gasoline for ultra-clean fuels
• Tri-reforming of natural gas for conversion and utilization of CO₂ with flue gas
• Reforming of liquid hydrocarbon fuels and alcohols for fuel cell applications
• New catalytic materials for jet fuel processing including deep desulfurization and hydrogenation
• Chemistry and stabilizers for advanced thermally stable jet fuels for high-Mach aircraft
• Capture of CO₂ from flue gas of power plants
• Capture of H₂S from reformate of hydrocarbon fuels for fuel cell applications
• Shape-selective catalysis over molecular sieves for value-added organic chemicals
• Computational analysis of reaction pathways in catalytic processes
• Computer simulation of molecular dynamics in pore channels of catalytic materials
• New catalytic materials for fuel and chemical processing and synthesis of organic chemicals
• Analytical characterization of catalytic materials and fuels
• Upgrading of coal, heavy oil, resid and coal-based liquid feedstocks to clean fuel
• Catalytic processing of diesel fuel, jet fuel, and gasoline
• Desulfurization, denitrogenation and hydrogenation of fuels
• Shape- or regio-selective synthesis of organic chemicals
• CO₂ capture, conversion, and utilization
• Conversion of coal, heavy oils, and wastes to fuels, chemicals, and materials