Jochen A. Lauterbach - US grants

ABSTRACT CTS-9871020 Jochen Lauterbach Purdue University Title: Development of an Imaging FT-IR System for Combinatorial Sciences Professor Jochen Lauterbach will develop an Imaging FT-IR system for high throughput screening of materials such as polymers, adsorbed layers on catalysts, and solid state restructuring during reaction. The goals are to achieve a system capable of imaging a 75 mm x 75 mm field of view, determine trends in structure-property relations within a combinatorial library, develop response speed sufficient for in situ measurement of chemical reaction-induced changes in a large library of compounds. The instrument development will be carried out in the Chemical Engineering Department. Purdue University will cost-share 33% of the development.

In the field of material science, the vast array of possible compositions, structures, and formulations leads to a very high complexity, which has often kept researchers from predicting material behavior based on the formulation and, even more importantly, from designing better materials. The advent of high-throughput technologies has made a large impact in the past few years, accelerating the discovery of novel catalytic materials through new kinds of rapid experimentation.

The goal of this research is to employ FTIR imaging as a truly parallel, high throughput, chemically sensitive analytical technique in conjunction with molecular-level and reactor scale modeling to gain insight into the nanoscale behavior of catalyst systems. The modeling approach will specifically be tailored towards accepting information from high throughput experimentation, creating a synergy between experiments and modeling. This work is aimed at the collection of high information content data in a parallel fashion in order to gain scientific knowledge about NOx storage and reduction catalysts for automotive exhaust aftertreatment and direct ammonia decomposition catalysts for onboard generation of hydrogen for mobile fuel cell applications.

This program will train students in the concept of this novel approach to research, development of novel experimental analytical techniques, the design of experiments, and data modeling on various length scales.

The development of a sustainable energy system is a critical global problem that impacts the environment, politics, economics, and security. Solar hydrogen (hydrogen generated from sustainable solar-derived power such as photovoltaics or biomass) offers a potential solution to this problem. However, an environmentally and economically sustainable solar hydrogen system requires integration of policy, economics, systems, and components, as well as multidisciplinary approaches to the conversion and storage devices themselves. The Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) award to the University of Delaware enables development of a new graduate program in Sustainable Energy from Solar Hydrogen that will integrate relevant concepts from science, engineering, economics, and social sciences. The program is aimed at providing students with the multidisciplinary background both to make the scientific and technical breakthroughs that will drive advances in energy conversion and storage and to provide the leadership that will ensure appropriate use of the technology. The IGERT program uses pedagogical tools that have been shown to increase learning effectiveness, emphasizes the societal responsibility of scientists and engineers through outreach programs and mentoring, and provides students with the skills needed to become leaders by focusing on problem solving, communication, teamwork, and collaboration. The program also develops a model for recruiting and retaining members of underrepresented groups by explicitly addressing factors that hinder graduation, such as accommodation of multiple backgrounds in the educational program, early integration with all members of the research program, mentoring, and training in the skills needed for both research and broader success. The graduate model has the potential for broad applicability because similar educational challenges exist in many complex problems today, where the science and technology lie at the intersection of traditionally unrelated disciplines and where application of the technology intersects with social, political, and economic factors. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

This REU program will provide a rich research experience for ten chemical engineering undergraduates in the emerging field of energy research. The students will be mentored by faculty members in diverse, but all energy related research areas, ranging from heterogeneous catalysis to nanomaterials for energy reduction. In addition to the research experience, the students will be involved in a variety of professional and developmental activities. These activities include: 1) field trips to local companies involved in energy related research (fuel cells, hydrocarbon processing, biofuels) and to energy research facilities on campus (Institute for Energy Conversion); 2) informal workshops focusing on areas such as oral communication skills and graduate student life; and 3) brown bag lunches to encourage social interaction among the students and mentors.

Research in alternative energies and energy reduction technology is rapidly becoming one of the most important topics in engineering and science and will remain a national research priority for quite some time. The students in this program will have the opportunity to make a substantial impact in addressing the world's energy issues. The involvement of these students in exciting research enhances the likelihood that they will consider post-graduate study and broaden the base of the Nation's technical manpower.

This Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) award provides Ph.D. students at the University of South Carolina at Columbia with the unique training and skill sets to advance the science and engineering of nanomaterials for sustainable energy generation. Trainees are collaborating in interdisciplinary research teams to receive a technical education in alternative energy production and to gain experience in technology commercialization, entrepreneurship and science communication.

Intellectual Merit: Three main research areas direct trainees to design materials that can be applied to energy conversion involving: (1) transformation of carbon dioxide into liquid fuels; (2) conversion of biomass feedstock to liquid fuels; and (3) modifying solar energy into electricity. Trainees engage in problem--?]based learning and use case studies to address each research question through research and coursework. While exploring the basic underlying physical laws and engineering constraints for their research areas, students are participating and competing in a new campus innovation program.

Broader Impacts: This project?fs emphasis on entrepreneurship and strong technical training is preparing trainees to take leadership roles within the fast growing renewable energy industries and existing fossil fuel infrastructure. The University of South Carolina at Columbia?fs campus programs and partnership with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, encourage the participation of underrepresented groups in this project. Additionally, trainees are engaging in outreach activities with the South Carolina Governor?fs School for Science and Mathematics, to provide research opportunities and mentoring to STEM high school students.

IGERT is an NSF--?]wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to establish new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries, and to engage students in understanding the processes by which research is translated to innovations for societal benefit.

Energy transportation, distribution, and use are major problems for military forces. To simplify logistics, the US military has chosen JP-8 as the sole battlefield fuel. While JP-8 is useful in combustion-based generators, the absence of low molecular weight hydrocarbons and the high concentration of sulfur-containing molecules preclude the use of commercial gas appliances and energy-dense portable fuel cells. Several commercially available fuel converters can reform JP-8 into syngas or hydrogen; but process complexity and sulfur intolerance hinder their widespread adoption. Therefore, the current proposal explores a new fuel reformation method that has been developed at the University of South Carolina.

The fuel converter accepts a variety of transportation fuels, including JP-8, and produces a mixture of low molecular weight hydrocarbons. In contrast to hydrogen, the products from the process are easy to compress and store and are more versatile for use in solid oxide fuel cells, commercial gas appliances, and combustion generators. The zeolite-based catalyst is the core of the fuel conversion technology; it is resistant to coking, sulfur-poisoning, and active at low conversion temperatures. Two of the strongest attributes of the catalytic process is its sulfur tolerance and low-sulfur product concentration; in other words, the process is a fuel reformer and desulfurizer. The team will research scale-up of the catalyst production in anticipation for customer demand. The scientific knowledge that is gained during scale up through catalyst characterization will facilitate commercialization of the fuel conversion technology and can be translated to other zeolite scale-up processes.

TECHNICAL SUMMARY:
The topic of this REU site is "Cradle to the grave - CO2 opportunities and challenges". The scientific objective is to leverage the expertise of an interdisciplinary team in nanoscience, materials science, heterogeneous catalysis, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, mathematical modeling, and geological CO2 storage to advance the understanding of the role that novel materials and processes will play in reducing the environmental impact of CO2. The REU students will participate in cutting-edge research, ranging from advanced combustion technologies, CO2 separation and sequestration, and chemical conversion of CO2 and biomass to hydrocarbon fuels. The combustion research will focus on oxy-fuel combustion and integrated gasification combined cycle. Gas phase chemistry of sulfur oxides and trace metals will be elucidated by experiments and kinetic modeling. Increasing energy production efficiency by raising the temperature of combustion environments will expose gas turbine blades to highly aggressive environments. Modern blades consist of high strength super-alloys blades, ceramic thermal barrier coatings and metallic/oxide bond coats. REU students will participate in the experimental aspects of this project including using state-of-the-art high-throughput deposition and characterization techniques or in the modeling and data mining aspects of this work. Once CO2 has been generated, it must be captured from the flue gas. Research here will emphasize the generation of novel unit operations for the efficient removal of CO2 and new high-capacity sorbent materials. Carbon forms the backbone for high energy density fuels. C=O bonds in CO2 therefore need to be converted back to high energy C-H and C-C bonds. Projects in this thrust range from the fundamental study and improvement of proven technologies, such as electrochemical reduction of CO2 to more ambitious projects, which rely on solar energy to promote conversion. However, the sheer scale of CO2 production is such that it is infeasible to completely convert the CO2 into chemicals or hydrocarbon fuels. Therefore, storage of CO2 is required to reduce the environmental impact of energy generation on a scale beyond anything that has ever been attempted. Research here focuses on sequestration of CO2 and in particular on the long-term stability of storage in geological formations in South Carolina

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:
Our nation's ability to meet our future energy needs in a sustainable manner will be critical to our ability to continue to prosper. Advancing the scientific knowledge and developing the intellectual workforce for a variety of sustainable energy technologies will be at the center of this endeavor. This REU site will train and expose our future scientific leaders to cutting-edge research in sustainable energy in general, and in nanoscience, catalysis and CO2 capture and storage in particular. Professional development efforts will provide the students with the non-technical knowledge and experience required to take discoveries out of the lab and place them into society. Participants will include rising juniors and seniors majoring in chemical engineering. Special emphasis will be placed on minorities as well as students who would otherwise not have an opportunity to do cutting-edge research.

We acknowledge the support from the Division of Engineering Education and Centers.