Bimetallic catalysts for low-pressure ring opening

Nowadays, the refining industry faces the significant challenges of a simultaneous decrease in the quality of crude oils and increase in demand for the best fuels possible. A catalytic ring opening of naphthenes is a preferred reaction for improving the cetane number of fuels. Noble metal catalysts, prepared via traditional impregnation-calcination techniques, discredit themselves due to their low sulfur resistance.

Recent tremendous successes in the synthesis of well-defined catalytic nanoparticles of desirable sizes and structures have opened unprecedented opportunities for catalytic technologies since catalytic properties may change dramatically (e.g, by an order of magnitude in activity) with only a 1-nm difference in a particle size. This project intends to develop a robust bimetallic ring opening catalyst via precise control of the bimetallic nanoparticle structure and size.

Funded by the Centre for Oil Sands Innovation (COSI).

Structure sensitivity of catalytic hydrogenations

According to the Catalysis Report of “Technology Vision 2020: The Chemical Industry”, one of the two major goals in the field of catalysis is

"Development of catalysts with selectivity approaching 100%"

which may be enabled by

"New methods to synthesize stable, high productivity catalysts with control of active-site architecture".

Enormous breakthroughs in catalytic technologies are foreseen due to recent tremendous successes in nanotechnology, in particular, in liquid-phase synthesis of metal nanoparticles with controlled size and shape. The era of controlling the active-size architecture using liquid-phase synthesis is rising, and it is believed to bridge the materials gap that has dominated the catalysis area for the past century.

Structure-sensitive catalytic reactions (e.g., alkyne hydrogenations) are considerably influenced by the structure of a catalytic metal nanoparticle. Recent advances in colloid chemistry techniques allow the synthesis of monodispersed metal nanoparticles with a controlled size and shape, which is a giant step in the development of catalysts with a controlled active-site architecture.

The Project objective is to increase the catalyst activity and selectivity in structure-sensitive hydrogenations via optimization of a metal nanoparticle structure. Structure-sensitive hydrogenations are widely used in chemical industry (vitamin, perfume synthesis, vegetable oil hydrogenation in food industry, hydrotreating in petrochemical industry). Catalysts with an optimized active-site architecture will allow increasing product yields and reaction rates. Knowledge advancement is anticipated in the field of catalytic reaction fundamentals.

Funded by NSERC (Discovery Grant) and the Faculty of Engineering, U of A.

Arranged catalysts for structured catalytic reactors

Structured catalytic reactors offer outstanding performance in three-phase catalytic processes as compared to traditional trickle-bed reactors, such as

• increased yield at decreased energy input (quite the opposite to what Nature predicts),
• an order-of-magnitude lower pressure drop,
• excellent mass transfer and observed catalyst activity, etc.

Looking forward to the reactors' wide commercialization, there is a quest for suitable arranged/structured catalysts. Conventional methods of active catalyst deposition on structured support result in poor adhesion, cracking of active layer under thermal stresses, and lead to high VOC emission.

In this project, together with Prof. John Nychka, we aim to develop arranged catalysts via environmentally benign technique resulting in a highly stable layer with enhanced catalytic activity, selectivity, coke resistance, and a much prolonged lifetime.

Funded by NSERC (Strategic Grant).