Description:

Dr. Alex Bell from University of California, Berkeley will present a seminar on The Role of Catalysis in the Conversion of Renewable Energy Resources to Fuels, detailed information is provided below. Reception to follow.

Abstract: The discovery and development of effective strategies for utilizing renewable energy resources (wind, solar energy, biomass) has become a major theme in the 21st century. The growing recognition that combustion of non-renewable energy resources (natural gas, petroleum, and coal) adversely affects effects the global climate has motivated these efforts. One of the challenges is to provide high energy density transportation fuels – gasoline and diesel. While these fuels have been produced from petroleum, it is possible to produce them from biomass. This approach, however, requires significant transformation of biomass to produce species resembling gasoline and diesel. Catalysts are required to facilitate these chemical processes as is a source of hydrogen for the removal of oxygen. This talk will discuss possible catalytic processes for converting the carbohydrate fraction of biomass to diesel, the production of hydrogen by solar energy driven photoelectrochemical splitting of water, and the possibility of the photoelectrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to fuels. Thoughts concerning the challenges involved in the implementation of each of the alternatives will be examined and put into perspective. 

Dr. Alexis T. Bell received his ScD degree in chemical engineering from MIT in 1967 and then joined the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, where he currently holds the title of Dow Professor of Sustainable Chemistry. He has served as Chairman of the department from 1981 till 1991 and again from 2005 to 2006 and as Dean of the College of Chemistry from 1994 to 1999. Professor Bell is also a Faculty Senior Scientist in the E. O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He serves as Editor for Catalysis Reviews, and has served as Chair of the Board of Editor for Chemical Engineering Science (2005-2011). He has also served on numerous committees of the American Chemical Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Council for Chemical Research, and the National Research Council.

Professor Bell’s research focuses on the use of experimental and theoretical methods to elucidate reaction mechanisms and the development of structure-property relationships for metal, metal oxide, and zeolite catalysts. He has published approximately 595 papers, which have been cited more than 20,000 times. His research contributions have been recognized by a number of awards and honors, including the AIChE Professional Progress Award (1983), the R. H. Wilhelm Award for New Contribution in Chemical Reaction Engineering (1992), and the William H. Walker Award for Excellence in Contributions to the Chemical Engineering Literature (2005); the ACS Award in Creative Research in Homogeneous or Heterogeneous Catalysis (2002) and the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon or Petroleum Chemistry (2013); and the Paul Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis (1985) and the Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis (2007) of the North American Catalysis Society. He has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (1987), the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1988), and the National Academy of Science (2010). He is also an honorary member of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2001) and was identified as “One Hundred Engineers of the Modern Era” by AIChE (2008).

Date & Time: Wednesday, October 22, 2014 4:30-5:30 (Lecture) 5:30-7:30 (Reception)

Location: Pancoe Auditorium, Room 1101 (Arthur and Gladys Pancoe- NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion)

Reception will be held in the Pancoe NSUHS cafe.