STRATEGIES TO REDUCE THE GLOBAL CARBON FOOTPRINT OF PLASTICS

Jiajia Zheng, Sangwon Suh

Over the past four decades, global plastics production has quadrupled. If this trend were to continue, the GHG emissions from plastics would reach 15% of the global carbon budget by 2050. Strategies to mitigate the life-cycle GHG emissions of plastics, however, have not been evaluated on a global scale. Here, we compile a dataset covering ten conventional and five bio-based plastics and their life-cycle GHG emissions under various mitigation strategies.

CATALYTIC MOLTEN METALS FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF METHANE TO HYDROGEN AND SEPARABLE CARBON

Upham, D.C., Agarwal, V., Khechfe, A., Snodgrass, Z., Gordon, M.J., Metiu, H. McFarland, E.W.

Hydrogen is an important chemical intermediate and could be used as a CO2-free energy carrier in many applications that currently rely on fossil hydrocarbons. Steam methane (CH4) reforming (SMR) followed by the water-gas shift reaction is the most common process for large-scale hydrogen production today.

LIGAND-ACCELERATED GOLD-CATALYZED ADDITION OF IN SITU GENERATED HYDRAZOIC ACID TO ALKYNES UNDER NEAT CONDITIONS

Xiaoqing Li, Shengrong Liao, Zhixun Wang, and Liming Zhang

The direct addition of in situ generated hydrazoic acid to alkynes is realized without solvent by using a gold catalyst derived from a recently designed remotely functionalized biaryl-2-ylphosphine ligand (i.e., WangPhos). With terminal alkynes, the additions are mostly realized with 0.1 mol% catalyst loadings and at 40 °C. With more challenging internal alkynes devoid of direct EWG substitution, the one-step transformation is realized for the first time with generally high efficiency at ambient temperature.

DEHYDROGENATING METHANE AND PROPANE USING MOLTEN SALTS AND METALS

Upham, D.C., Snodgrass, Z., Agarwal, V., Khechfe, A., Gordon, M.J., Metiu, H. McFarland, E.W.

North American Catalysis Society Annual Meeting, Fossil Energy Session, Denver, CO, June 2017.

PHOTOREDOX CATALYST BASED ON A TRIARYLIMIDAZOLE OXIDATIVE ELECTROCHEMICAL MEDIATOR

Chui Marco Lam

Czech Republic.  Invited oral presentation, June 2017

PHOTOREDOX CATALYST BASED ON A TRIARYLIMIDAZOLE OXIDATIVE ELECTROCHEMICAL MEDIATOR

Chui Marco Lam

231th National Meeting of the Electrochemical Society, New Orleans, LA. Oral presentation, May 2017

TAKING CO2 EMISSION OUT OF FOSSIL FUEL PRODUCTION USING A CATALYTIC MELT

Upham, D.C., Agarwal, V., Khechfe, A., Gordon, M.J., Metiu, H. McFarland, E.W.

253rd ACS National Meeting, Division of Catalysis Science and Technology, San Francisco, CA, April 2017