NSF Directorate for Engineering Division of Chemical, Bioengineering,

1. NSF Directorate for Engineering Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems(CBET) An Overview of the Chemical, Biochemical, and Biotechnology Systems Cluster George J. Antos Program Director Catalysis & Biocatalysis Program Presented at the AIChE 2010 Annual Meeting Salt Lake City, UT 8 November 2010 1

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3. Traditional Disciplines in Chemical Engineering Process and Reaction Engineering Program Director - Maria Burka mburka @ nsf.gov Chemical and Biological Separations Program Director - Rosemarie D. Wesson rwesson @ nsf.gov Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program Director - George Antos gantos @ nsf.gov 3

4. Clusteromics: FY 2010 Awards ~ $16.4 Million Description Total Proposals Received Unsolicited Awards CAREER EAGER/RAPID GOALI Workshops/Conferences Supplements (REU, GRS, etc.) # of Awards 557 53 3 14 8 20 46 Total Dollars - - - $10,640,786 $1,200,000 $1,138,575 $1,474,810 $472,048 $772,437 4

5. Process and Reaction Engineering • Program supports research and educational projects • related to: Interactions between chemical reactions and transport phenomena in reactive systems, and the use of this information in the design of complex chemical and biochemical reactors (Reaction Engineering) Reactive processing of polymers , ceramics, and thin films Electrochemical and photochemical processes of engineering significance or with commercial potential Design and optimization of complex chemical processes (Design) Dynamic modeling and control of process systems and individual process units (Control) 5

6. Chemical Reaction Engineering Environmental/energy issues – green chemistry Developing a catalytic reactor to remove toxic components of landfill gas (LFG) so that LFG can be used as an alternate source of energy New methods to manufacture jet fuel Cellulose fast pyrolysis Study of nitrification for various treatment uses Application of new CI paradigms Microreactors Electro- and photo-chemical systems Carbon nanotube templated battery electrodes Cathodes for intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells Reactors used in microelectronics manufacturing: CVD, plasma reactors Metal oxide nanosheets fabricated by atomic layer deposition Bioreactors – fermentation, biofuels, etc. Non-traditional reactor systems: membrane reactors, reactions in SCF Microwave synthesis of materials Nanotechnology Asymmetric nanopores for studies of hindered transport Growth of ultra thin metal alloy films 6

7. Atomic and Molecular Layer Deposition Unique combinations of self-saturating surface reactions to modifiy surfaces and deposit films with monolayer precision Gregory ParsonsNorth Carolina State University CBET-1034374: “Synthesis and applications of dispersible exfoliated metal oxide nanosheets fabricated by ALD” Scientific Merit: Explore the “ultrathin” limits of cohesive ALD materials. Hypothesis: Ultrathin (nm to sub nm) ALD films can be exfoliated, dispersed in solution, and used to perform critical functions. Repeated sequential exposures to self-saturating half-reactions produces ultrathin film coatings on complex surfaces with molecular-scale thickness control. Q. Peng, et al., Nano Letters 2007 Longer term goal: Semiconductor heterojunction photocatalyst nanosheets ALD ZnO/Al2O3 ZnO ZnO 7

8. Carbon Nanotube Templated Battery ElectrodesRobert Davis, John Harb, and Richard VanfleetBrigham Young University Nanotube templated battery electrode structure Si electrode stable capacity CVD Si Shell (Blue) Carbon Nanotubes (Black) Stability over 20 cycles for 15 nm shell Stainless Steel Control of Si thickness and Si volume fraction a 15 nm Si shell b 40 nm Si shell • Key Achievements Flexible fabrication process Highest Si areal capacity to date† Good cycling stability • NSF EAGER CBET Award # 1027750 8

9. Cyber-Enabled Design of Nanomaterials Cummings and Ledeczi - Vanderbilt University, Kumar - Columbia University • Novel Features: • Optimization tools to design NBBs (Cummings) • Needs prediction of properties given a • structure (Expensive; Kumar) • (iii) Model integrated web-based design • environment to abstract away low-level • software engineering details and speed up • step (ii) using GPUs (Ledeczi) • Experimental validation(Kumar) • Education: summer camp at Vanderbilt • targeted at minority undergrad students • (vi) Hiring and mentoring of post-docs Traditional:Given nanoscale building blocks (NBBs), predict properties Proposed:Given desired properties, design NBBs 9

10. Chemical and Biological Separations Program (CBS) Program Objective: Support fundamental research on novel methods and materials for separation processes 10

11. Chemical and Biological Separations Program (CBS) Emphasis Areas: Nanostructured materials for separations Biorenewable resource separation processes Purification of drinking water Field (flow, magnetic, electrical) induced separations Adsorption and chromotography 11

12. Removal of Emerging Contaminants from WaterArturo Hernandez-Maldonado - University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez The Hernandez-Maldonado group is researching methods of removing particular pharmaceutical drug types to improve water quality.  Drug-metal-complexation is being investigated as a means to achieve the selective removal of particular pharmaceutical drug families from water.  Anchoring a transition metal- based species onto the surface of a substrate results in a material with the potential of selectively removing pharmaceutical drugs from water.  Schematic representation of the removal of Naproxen molecules via adsorption with a silica rich surface grafted with nickel-based complexes. Credit: Hernandez-Maldonado and co-workers University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez 12

13. Carbon Dioxide-Selective MembranesWinston Ho - Ohio State University Membranes developed allow carbon dioxide transfer due to its reversible reaction with amino groups within the membrane. The membrane rejects hydrogen, due to the absence of reaction. Unique membranes that possess very high selectivities of carbon dioxide versus hydrogen and nitrogen and very high carbon dioxide permeability at relatively high temperatures have been produced. Potential applications, include: • (1) purification of syngas to produce high purity • hydrogen for fuel cells and other applications, • (2) carbon dioxide capture from flue gas for • sequestration, and • (3) carbon dioxide removal from biogas, natural • gas, confined space air, and ambient air. Image Credit: Jian Zou and W.S. Winston Ho The Ohio State University 13

14. Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program supports research and educational projects with this emphasis: Fundamental Science, Phenomena & Materials of: Heterogeneous/Homogeneous Catalysis Biocatalysis Electro- and Photo-catalysis Process Conversion Technologies to Produce Fuels, Chemicals, Materials Biorenewable Conversion Catalysis and Processes 14

15. Catalytic Kinetics and Mechanisms Robert J. Davis - University of Virginia CBET-0624608 Interfacial hydroxide promotes activity in biorenewable alcohol oxidation to chemicals 15

16. Catalytic Kinetics and Mechanisms (R)-1 1.8 nm Eduardo Wolf– Univ of Notre Dame Wenbin Lin - UNC at Chapel Hill CBET-0854324 Engineerable, uniform asymmetric catalysts based on metal-organic frameworks CBET-10xxxx Conceptual design  of a catalytic nanodiode. CHE-0512495 16 SEM micrograph of a multilayer structure for FTIR studies.

17. Biocatalysis Bacterial Methanol Dehydrogenase/ Mediator Products Methanol e- e- e- ANODE Vadim Guliants University of Cincinnati Daniela Mainardi Louisiana Tech University Effects of surface curvature and confined nanoscale environment on biocatalytic activity Representation of methanol oxidation by bacteria Methanol Dehydrogenase (MDH) in fuel cell anode. CTS-0449046 CTS - 0403897 17

18. Novel Materials / Syntheses Boris Yakobson William Marsh Rice University Field-emission microscopy demonstrates unambiguous rotation of a growing tube [Nano Lett. 2009] Chiral symmetry, or helicity, defines all physical properties and controls the rate of self-assembly of carbon nanotubes CBET-0731246 18

19. Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation + Biomass Conversion to Fuels & Chemicals + Inorganic and Biocatalysis DRAFT 19

20. Biofuel Production Alternatives Forest waste Lipids Sugarcane lignocellulose Fisher-Tropsch Jet Fuel gasification to “syngas” (CO + H2) methanol gases pyrolysis, fast or slow Corn stover bio-oil Diesel dissolution Switch-grass liquid phase processing Sugar/Starch Gasoline starch Corn grain saccharification lignin Heat/Power Ethanol butanol fermentation sugar thermal routes catalytic routes Alga hydrotreating biological routes Soy beans synthetic biology Biodiesel transesterfication 20

21. Next Opportunities for Catalysis & Biocatalysis Catalysis Science, especially utilizing biomass-derived feedstocks Fuels  Chemicals  Materials Photo- and Electro-chemical Catalysis Science Materials Fuel Cells C1 Chemistry and Catalysis Science Energy Storage Fuel Interconversion 21

22. Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Division Chemical, Biochemical, and Biotechnology Systems Cluster Personnel George Antos 1401 Catalysis & Biocatalysis Email: gantos@nsf.gov • Rose Wesson • Chemical and Biological Separations • Email: rwesson@nsf.gov Support Staff: Judy Chu Science Assistant Email: jchu@nsf.gov Trenita Howard Program Specialist Email: thoward@nsf.gov Maria Burka 1403 Process and Reaction Engineering Email: mburka@nsf.gov 22