Partial Oxidation, Complete Combustion, Carbon Chemistry, Modeling, Surface Studies, Fuel Processing

   The future of alternative routes to chemical synthesis for faster, more selective and more economical processes lies in the understanding and development of partial oxidation reactions. Partial Oxidation has been a main focus in this laboratory because of the industrial importance, potential as a hydrogen source for fuel cells, and the lack of adequate research that has been done. Work has been particularly difficult for many reasons: (1) Kinetics are difficult to elucidate because most reactions are mass transfer limited, (2) The highly exothermic nature of the reactions lead to nonisothermal catalysts and multiple steady states and ignition/extinction behavior, and (3) Potential for autothermal behavior and flames and explosions make experiments dangerous. These phenomena must be thoroughly understood and controlled for the development of new technology.

Successful work involving such reactions has included:

·      Production of syngas by direct oxidation of C₁ - C₈ alkanes over monoliths 

·      Production of oxygenates by direct oxidation of C₄ - C₆ alkanes over catalytic gauzes 

·      Production of olefins by direct oxidation of alkanes over monoliths

   Continuing work focuses on developing techniques to produce low CO content hydrogen streams quickly from higher alkanes for fuel cell applications.  To achieve these goals current research involves incorporating Water Gas Shift catalysts downstream of our partial oxidation catalysts in order to convert high CO content hydrogen streams into low content (~1% CO) hydrogen streams suitable for selective oxidation and fuel cell applications, rapid lightoff of partial oxidation catalysts to produce hydrogen in seconds for rapid fuel cell startup, partial oxidation of higher alkanes to simulate gasoline and diesel, and monitoring of carbon formation during startup, shutdown, and steady state operations of higher alkane partial oxidation.  Other research focuses on the partial oxidation of ethane to make ethylene with higher yields than industrial steam crackers and the design and simulation of catalytic wall reactors to increase heat transfer by eliminating thermal boundary layers.