קולוקוויום מחלקתי 23.03.2022

הקולוקויום יתקיים ביום שרביעי 23/03/2022 בשעה 11:00 בחדר הסמינרים המחלקתי (211/112).

The Department of Chemistry Weekly Seminar will take place on Wednesday 23/03/22, 11:00 am in the Department seminar room 211/112.

Rational Nanoscale Engineering of Thermocatalytic Materials for Sustainable Transformation of CO_² into Renewable Synthetic Fuels​

Prof. David Simakov​

Department of Chemical Engineering, Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada​

Email: dsimakov@uwaterloo.ca​

Abstract​

Thermocatalytic treatment of CO2-rich feedstocks (e.g., biogas, landfill gas, industrial flue gases) is an attractive route for generating Renewable Synthetic Fuels. To make the process of thermocatalytic conversion sustainable, hydrogen (H2), which is required for CO2 hydrogenation, should have a negligible carbon footprint. This requirement is achievable when H2 is generated using renewable power (e.g., by water electrolysis). Process development starts with selecting a suitable catalytic formulation, which can be assisted by density function theory (DFT) calculations and machine learning (ML). Once selected, a synthesis method needs to be developed to create the required composition and morphology in a controllable way. Next, transport limitations must be considered at both the micro- and macro-scale. Ultimately, a conversion device (chemical reactor) needs to be designed and integrated into the CO2 conversion process, which must be assessed for techno-economic feasibility. This talk focuses on the catalyst development, first outlining computational aspects and then discussing the reverse microemulsion system as a synthesis method. Aspects of reactor design, system integration and techno-economic evaluation are briefly outlined as well. Future perspectives are also discussed.

Biography​

David Simakov received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology working on the design of catalytic membrane reformers for integrated fuel cell systems. After spending two years in industry on research and developing of a new generation of fuel cells based on anion-exchange membranes, he moved back to academia. He first participated in a joint Technion-Princeton University project working on reaction-diffusion modelling of the biological pattern formation and then moved to Harvard University, where he studied the nonlinear phenomena in catalytic oscillatory chemical systems. Prior to joining the University of Waterloo as an Assistant Professor, Dr. Simakov conducted his postdoctoral training in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he worked on thermocatalysis and reactor design for solar thermal reforming. His main research expertise is synthesis of catalytic materials for heterogeneous catalysis applications, reactor design and system integration for thermocatalytic conversion applications. Currently, the main focus of Dr. Simakov’s research group is synthesis of thermocatalytic materials for transformation of CO2 into Renewable Synthetic Fuels and development of related sustainable processes.​

​

 ​