Catalyzing innovations for

sustainable chemicals & fuels

Annual Report

2013-2014

a unique resource

for industrial

catalysis

Simple and Safer Processes

Skilled Scientists

and Engineers

Waste Prevention

Lead Ins� tu� on: The University of Kansas

Collaborators: Prairie View A&M University University of Iowa Washington University in St. Louis

Contributors: Claudia Bode, Darryl Fahey, Chris LyonDesigner: Nancy Crisp

Copyright © 2014

www.cebc.ku.edu The Center for Environmentally Benefi cial CatalysisTel: (785) 864-6050, E-mail: cebc@ku.edu

contents

Director’s Overview 2

CEBC Highlights 3-4

Research Highlights 5-7

Industry Partnership 8

Educa" on & Outreach 9

Students & Postdocs 10

Recent Publica" ons back cover

BroadIndustrial

Impact

Changing how chemicals are manufactured can make

a world of diff erence. At the Center for Environmen-

tally Benefi cial Catalysis, chemists and engineers are

inven� ng cleaner, safer, more effi cient technologies

that protect the planet and human health.

To launch innova� ons from lab to marketplace, we

ac� vely partner with chemical companies—to date,

21 total. And, our unrivaled training experiences are

preparing future scien� sts and engineers to tackle

tomorrow’s challenges.

CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report | 2

Dr. Bala Subramaniam CEBC Director

Director’s

Overview

I am delighted to report that the CEBC is poised for success in its second decade. The center’s

mission — developing eco-friendly, economical technologies — is more relevant than ever.

And, key metrics for success are on the rise: new sources of revenue, more industry part-

ners, new faculty addi! ons, stronger training for students and postdocs; an upswing

with undeniable poten! al.

Two major funding successes in 2013 set the stage for exci! ng leveraging and training

opportuni! es. A $4.4 million grant, jointly from the Na! onal Science Founda! on and the

Environmental Protec! on Agency, creates a network for designing sustainable chemicals. A

successful renewal of the NSF “Research Experience for Teachers” grant for $500,000 builds

on the center’s thriving outreach. Altogether, more than $12 million in federal funding since 2011

speaks to both the quality and relevance of CEBC research.

Research and training eff orts at the CEBC closely match the needs of the current petrochemical manu-

facturing renaissance. Because of the shale gas boom, many companies have announced construc! on of

new ethylene crackers—not overseas but right here in the U.S. These new plants have a cumula! ve annual

capacity exceeding 10 million metric tons! R&D opportuni! es abound in chemistries and technologies for

C1-C4 conversions, areas of exper! se at CEBC. More hydrogen from ethylene crackers should also aid in

economical biomass conversions. Demand for well-trained scien! sts and engineers for this manufactur-

ing sector are soaring, and the CEBC is ready to meet this demand.

A fi ve-year strategic plan launched in 2013 judiciously expands research exper! se for addressing the many

R&D challenges associated with the resource-effi cient conversion of biomass and shale gas feedstocks.

The plan strengthens the catalysis cluster by adding two senior “Founda! on Professors” and several junior

level faculty posi! ons, including two recent hires, Kevin Leonard in chemical and petroleum engineering

and Marco Caricato in chemistry. To house the added faculty, new architectural plans are underway to

renovate exis! ng laboratories and add a new research wing. These investments in CEBC clearly indicate

the strong commitment and support by the KU administra! on, for which we are very grateful.

As CEBC looks forward to another decade of growing stronger, we especially thank members of the

Industry Advisory Board and the Science Advisory Board, present and past, for their valuable guidance in

helping the center maintain both scien! fi c/engineering excellence and industrial relevance.

I also wish to thank CEBC’s dedicated faculty, researchers, students, and staff . Par! cularly, as Industrial

Liaison Director Darryl Fahey has announced his re! rement, I want to express our gra! tude for his out-

standing stewardship of the CEBC Industry Partnership program for nearly a decade.

CEBC Is On Course for a New Decade of Innova� on

Corporate partners including Evonik, INVISTA, Archer Daniels

Midland, Chevron Phillips Chemical Company and Honeywell

UOP will help guide the research toward commercializa� on.

The new project mainly focuses on

products created from natural gas feedstocks. The research complements eff orts already underway at the CEBC to develop clean technologies for conver� ng biomass into chemicals as part of a $5.6 million grant awarded in 2011 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“This grant speaks to the high quality of research being done at the CEBC,” said Steve Warren, KU vice chancellor for research and graduate studies.

Highlights at a glance

Tim Jackson was promoted to Associate Professor of Chem-istry with tenure in August 2013. He also won a teaching award, Outstanding Honors Freshman Seminar, from the KU Honors Department, and was selected as a Faculty Fel-low of the Honors program beginning in August 2014.

Brian Laird, professor of Chemistry, will become KU Depart-ment of Chemistry chair eff ec� ve July 1, 2014.

Karen Nordheden, Associate Professor of Chemical Engi-neering at KU, presented at the Solvay Workshop on “Plas-mas for Environmental Applica� ons” in Brussels, Belgium.

Shenqiang Ren, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at KU, won two pres� gious awards in 2013, an NSF-EPSCoR First Award as well as an Air Force Summer Faculty Fellowship.

Bala Subramaniam, Dis� nguished Professor of Chemi-cal Engineering and CEBC Director, chaired the Indo-U.S. Conference on Energy, Environment and Sustainability in Mumbai, India in December 2013.

Ward Thompson, Professor of Chemistry at KU, presented at the Third Interna� onal Conference on Molecular Simula-� on in Kobe, Japan.

3 | CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report

CEBC Highlights

Researchers at CEBC hope to improve how plas� cs and synthe� c fi bers are made with a new grant from the Na� onal Science Founda� on and the Environmental Protec� on Agency.

The four-year, $4.4 million award is part of the federal government’s Networks for Sustainable Molecular Design and Synthesis program. It’s one of only four such awards made in 2013.

By bringing together chemical engineers, chemists, and industry partners, the network will accelerate discovery of safer, more sustainable technologies. The project is currently suppor� ng fi ve graduate students, fi ve postdoctoral researchers and several undergraduates.

Brian Laird, professor of chemistry and lead inves� gator for the project, says that the work will focus on more than just tradi� onal laboratory experiments. “We will develop and use molecular-level computer modeling methods to understand and op� mize various chemical processes,” said Laird.

CEBC receives $4.4 million todesign safer chemical processes

CoEv

MidlChem

UOP witoward c

The new

products creat

nd

r ch

sts, and covery of

sGraduate students Wenjuan Yan and Jesse Kern collaborate with

postdoc Krista Steenbergen in the new NSF/EPA project

Keynotes Given at Key Conferences

The exper� se of CEBC faculty members is in demand at conferences worldwide. 2013-14 keynote addresses include:

R.V. Chaudhari, North American Symposium on Chemical Reac� on Engineering, Houston, Texas, in March 2013

Bala Subramaniam, 12th Interna� onal Conference on Carbon Dioxide U� liza� on in Alexandria, Virginia, in June 2013

Bala Subramaniam, 6th Interna� onal Conference on Green & Sustainable Chemistry at University of No" ngham, United Kingdom, in August 2013

Shenqiang Ren, Euro Intelligent Materials Conference, Kiel, Germany, in September 2013

Bala Subramaniam, Workshop on Supercri� cal Fluids and Energy in Campinas, Brazil, in December 2013

Bala Subramaniam, Shale Gas Mone� za� on Workshop, Montgomery, Texas, in March 2014

CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report | 4

New faculty member expandsCEBC exper� se to electrocatalysis

Kevin Leonard joined CEBC and KU’s Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering as its newest assistant professor last fall.

Leonard’s exper� se in electrocatalysis and in situ surface character-iza� on add innova� ve tools to the CEBC toolbox. His work has poten� al in semiconductors for solar fuel applica� ons and in developing and characterizing electrocatalysts, with an emphasis on the hydrogen and oxygen evolu� on reac� ons.

“My goal is to develop inexpensive, stable and highly ac� ve photo- and electro-catalysts that can be made without any costly noble metals,” said Leonard. To do this, Leonard will si� through thousands of combina� ons of two or more metals. Finding the needle in this haystack could take decades. To speed up the search, Leonard u� lizes an innova� ve rapid screening technique called scanning electrochemical microscopy.

“To advance the state-of-the-art for both screening and electrochemical characteriza� on, we needed to build custom instrumenta� on,” said Leon-ard. CEBC’s Engineering Technician Ed Atchison used his machining skills to build Leonard a two-inch by four-inch device from Tefl on and aluminum that can analyze 64 samples at a � me. A 3D printer deposits � ny dots of diff erent materials onto the screening device, and then Leonard moves an electrode across the array of dots to map out which material composites are worth a closer look. With his new graduate student and fi ve under-graduates, Leonard is ready to put his tailor-made innova� on to work.

CEBC’s newest faculty member was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas in Austin with the “father of modern electro-chemistry,” Professor Allen Bard.

Drawing of Atchison’s custom design, actual size

2” x 4”

CEBC Highlights

U.S. Congresswoman Tours CEBCCongresswoman Lynn Jenkins visited CEBC on January 23, spending

more than an hour touring CEBC labs. She was briefed on the

chemical biorefi ning ini� a� ve by CEBC Director Bala Subramaniam,

and learned about the Bioscience & Technology Business Center

at KU. Jenkins said CEBC is a great example of public-private

partnership and the successes that occur when “federal, state,

university, and private industry all come together.”

Co

mo

ch

an

at

pa

un

g of ustom al size

(L to R) Bala Subramaniam, KU Chancellor Berna-dette Gray-Little, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins, KU Vice Chancellor for Research, Steve Warren

Book Edited by CEBC Researcher

Juan Bravo-Suarez, a former CEBC research associate who now works for Archer Daniels Midland, recently headed the editorial team for Novel Materials for Catalysis and Fuels

Processing, published in June by the American Chemical

Society. Bravo-Suarez contributed a chapter to the book, as

did several current CEBC researchers and one former student.

Kevin Leonard earned his doctorate at the University

of Wisconsin in 2011

New technology is cheaper

5 | CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report

Research

Finding new applica! ons for CEBC’s one-step spray process

“Terephthalic acid is not the only chemical that can benefi t from our novel

spray process,” says Bala Subramaniam. “The technique has remarkable

poten� al to oxidize molecules effi ciently.”

CEBC researchers are currently adap� ng their spray process to make a re-

newable stand-in for terephathalic acid called 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid

(FDCA). Instead of bubbling oxygen into a liquid reac� on mixture, as is of-

ten done for oxida� on processes, the researchers spray a fi ne mist into a

tall vessel loaded with oxygen gas. The � ny droplets give oxygen atoms

be� er access to their molecular des� na� on.

Last year, CEBC announced that it was partnering with agribusiness Archer

Daniels Midland on this project.

FinCEBC

“Terephthalic acid is not the only che

Research Associate Xiaobin Zuo examines FDCA sample

Chemical companies are eager for new ways to save ener-

gy, cut back on hazards, and curtail unwanted byproducts.

It’s not just be� er for the environment. It’s be� er for the

bo� om line.

A good target for cleaning up and cu! ng costs is terephthal-

ic acid—a giant among commodity chemicals. A staggering

100 billion pounds of this white sandy powder are made

annually, mostly for use in plas� c bo� les, easy-care fabrics

and food packaging.

“Our novel spray process can make extremely pure terephthalic acid in one step

instead of the two required by the exis� ng technology,” said Bala Subramaniam,

Director of CEBC.

Fewer process steps o" en mean less equipment, less cost, less energy, less waste.

If CEBC’s process really is cheaper and greener than the current method, compa-

nies will take no� ce.

But the only way to know for sure is to do the math. Former graduate student Meng

Li crunched the numbers for every possible expense needed to make terephthalic

acid using either the new CEBC process

or the conven� onal one.

As expected, cu! ng the number of

process steps in half is a great way to

save money. The new process shrinks

opera� ng costs by 16 percent and ini-

� al equipment costs by half.

Li also tallied up the poten� al envi-

ronmental impacts of the new and old

processes. She looked at everything

—all the raw materials, products, by-

products, wastes and energy —at every

step from pumping crude oil out of the

ground to the exit gate of a terephthalic

acid factory.

This analysis was tricky. Are greenhouse gases released? Do any materials cause cancer, harm fi sh or trigger asthma? What about smog? These and many other

ques� ons had to be considered.

Fortunately, Li had access to a commercial program’s huge database of air, wa-

ter and soil toxicity data for all sorts of chemicals and processing techniques.

A recent publica� on in the ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering journal

describes her analysis.

“Overall, the new process is be� er than the old one, but we see a mix of eco-logical benefi ts and hotspots,” said Subramaniam. “This o� en happens when

designing green technologies. Fixing one area causes another problem to crop

up somewhere else.”

On the bright side, the new process produces

fewer air pollutants, such as arsenic, fewer acid

rain players like nitrous oxide, and fewer green-

house gases. This is mostly because the new

process takes less electricity than the old one,

which cuts back on emissions from coal-fi red

power plants.

And the downside? The new process uses

more ace� c acid—the pungent compo-

nent in vinegar. It can cause a variety

of adverse health eff ects and harm

waterways if not treated on-site.

Subramaniam sees this poten� al ecological risk as an opportunity

to improve the process. Finding a way to use less ace� c acid is

not only be� er for the environment, but also promises to make a

cheaper process even less expensive.

“We now know where to focus our research and development eff orts

and help our industry partners make business decisions about adop� ng

this new technology,” said Subramaniam.

CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report | 6

But is it greener?

Pluses and Minuses:

Summing up the

environmental impact of

producing a giant among

commodity chemicals

Highlights

coal-fi red

uses

po-

y

a

eff orts

dop� ng

Postdoctoral Researcher Amit Chaudhari has taken over TPA research since PhD student Meng Li’s graduation last May

Sweeten Up: From Sugars to High-Value Chemicals

7 | CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report

Research

Highlights

CEBC’s lactic acid

research was featured

on the cover of the

November 2013 issue of

ACS Sustainable Chemistry

& Engineering

A sweet idea is brewing at CEBC: Turn plant sugars into ingredients for an� -freeze, cushy couches and many other consumer goods.

Several recipes exist for cooking up valuable chemical ingredients from plant sugars, but they suff er from major drawbacks. Scorching heat and extreme ener-gy demands spoil some methods. Others involve complicated separa� on steps.

“We are looking for a mild, energy-effi cient process,” said R.V. Chaudhari, Dis� n-guished Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Kansas and CEBC Deputy Director.

Chaudhari’s graduate student Xin Jin recently made a discovery that brings the team closer to this goal. The work, which is funded by the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture, was featured on the cover of a recent issue of the jour-

nal American Chemical Society Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering.

Jin created dozens of catalysts with various metals, like nickel and copper. Then he tested them to see if they could refashion glycerol, sorbitol, and other

sugars into more valuable chemical intermediates such as lac� c acid and glycols, the building blocks for plas� cs, paints, foams, fi bers,

and many other everyday items.

Jin found that one catalyst made with pla� num turned out to be surprisingly eff ec� ve. At rela� vely low temperatures

(~130oC), it gives greater than 95 percent desirable products and less than fi ve percent unwanted byproducts.

But that’s not all. Jin’s novel catalyst also whips up hydrogen needed for the recipe—right inside the catalyst. It does this

by slicing hydrogen atoms off some glycerol molecules and then s� cking them onto other glycerol-derived intermediate molecules

to form useful products.

Not having to add hydrogen from an external source means huge energy and cost savings and fewer greenhouse gas emissions. This is because making hy-drogen by the usual method—reforming natural gas with steaming hot water at 1500 degrees Fahrenheit—eats up loads of electricity.

Chaudhari refers to their approach as “tandem dehydrogena� on/hydrogenoly-sis.” If the results hold up, this new energy-effi cient recipe could one day be used to concoct ingredients for carpets, paints and other household items from renewable plant sugars. Now that’s a sweet idea for companies, farmers and eco-conscious consumers.

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Former CEBC student presents Industry Colloquium

Less than ten years ago, Hong Jin was a� ending CEBC

Industry Colloquia as a PhD student. In January 2014, she

returned to present a colloquium, “Life Cycle Assessment

and Its Value in Decision-Making.”

Dr. Jin is the project manager for life cycle assessments

(LCA) at Chevron Energy Technology Co. in Houston,

Texas. She has led various industrial LCA ini� a� ves

and has served on several government panels.

In her presenta� on at CEBC, Jin used “what

if” scenarios to demonstrate how

LCA provides a holis� c view of

chemical produc� on processes,

no� ng that “demonstra� ng

environmental stewardship

can be very important to

help a company win a bid

to do business with or in a

country.”

CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report | 8

SABIC Americas Joins CEBC

SABIC Americas, Inc. (SAI) is a wholly-owned United States

subsidiary of SABIC. It was incorporated in Delaware in

1987 with offi ces in Connec� cut, and its commercial

offi ces moved to Houston in 1998. Today, SAI manages

sales, marke� ng, business development, manufacturing,

and research and technology throughout the Americas.

SABIC Americas is a leading provider of basic and

intermediate chemicals and fer� lizer products to industries

throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico, Central America,

South America and the Caribbean. SAI also operates its

own Research and Technology Center in Sugar Land, Texas,

a state-of-the-art petrochemical research facility, which

enables it to stay at the cu" ng edge of scien� fi c advances

in the industry.

CEBC Inventions 2013-2014

Corporate partners have privileged access to license intellectual property developed at CEBC on core projects. Since CEBC’s incep� on, the cumula� ve totals are 39 inven� on disclosures created and 8 U.S. Patents issued.

“Alkylene Epoxida� on with Mesoporous Catalysts”

“Separa� on of Compressed CO2 and CO2-Expanded Liquid Mixtures using Ionic Liquids”

“Treatments to Improve Performance of Mesoporous Cata-lysts for Alkylene Epoxida� ons by Hydrogen Peroxide”

ADM expands manpower, lab space next to CEBCAgribusiness leader Archer Daniels Midland Company

expanded its leased laboratory space in the building next

door to CEBC this winter and doubled the number of

researchers from two to four.

ADM started leasing the space in the summer of 2012 to

conduct proprietary research on synthesizing chemicals

from renewable sources. “We are excited to see one of our

corporate partners take advantage of facili� es adjacent to

CEBC,” said Darryl Fahey, CEBC industrial liaison director.

In addi� on to space and manpower, ADM is using the

research projects underway at ADM’s Lawrence facility as

part of a coopera� ve research partnership with other

companies.

“Clearly, working close to CEBC is proving

advantageous for our company to advance

our technology strategy,” said Padmesh

Venkitasubramanian of ADM.

Both ADM scien� sts and CEBC postdoctoral

associates are employed at this facility.

This team is an extension of ADM

research located in Decatur, Illinois.

The lab and offi ce space are owned by

the Bioscience & Technology Business

Center at the University of Kansas,

launched in 2010 as a business incubator

to drive commercializa� on of research.

Industry

Partners

(Above) Hong Jin earned her PhD in Chemical Engineering from KU in 2006. (Below) Hong Jin talks to current CEBC students in 2014.

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9 | CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report

Education

& Outreach

Another 3 years! Renewed federal grant gives teachers authen� c research experiences

In 2006, Professor Susan Williams and Educa� on Director Claudia Bode launched a research experiences for teachers program at CEBC. Eight years later, it is s� ll going strong.

The new three-year NSF award for $500,000 expands the number of teacher par� cipants each summer to nine, pre-viously eight. It also includes a mentoring component, in which teachers partner with four undergraduates training to become teachers at KU’s UKanTeach program or at Emporia State Univer-sity. “To date, we have touched the lives of 20 science teachers and hundreds of high school students across Kansas,” said Bode. “I’m so excited to see our program con� nue to grow.”

Outreach Events

Graduate student Arely Torres and Educa� on Director Claudia Bode led a “self-infl a� ng glove” ac� vity for middle schoolers at KU’s Engineering Middle School Day Camp, June 5, 2013.

Claudia Bode promoted the theme “Be a CATalyst for Change” at two KU events: Engineering High School Design Compe� � on, November 5, and the Natural History Muse-um Chemical Connec� ons event, November 9, 2013.

Undergraduate Jason Bates and graduate students Dupeng Li, Griffi n Roberts, Prasad Sandireddy, Rong Wan, and Hongda Zhu led hands-on ac� vi� es at KU’s Carnival of Chemistry, November 24, 2013.

Ar� cle in pres� gious journal reaches na� onal audience

Educa� on director Claudia Bode, along with several high school teachers and KU faculty, de-scribed how to use algae to spark scien� fi c in-quiry in “Pond Power,” an ar� cle published this February in The Science Teacher, a na� onally recognized journal for high school teachers.

New class for undergraduates

A new course at KU this spring is helping undergraduates become be# er communi-cators. With a $3,000 grant from the Ameri-can Chemical Society, educa� on director Claudia Bode, director of chemistry laboratories Roderick Black and ecology professor Val Smith are designing the course. It features lectures from renowned communicators and a capstone outreach ac� vity at the KU Natural History Mu-seum. “Communica� on is one of the skills most valued by employers,” said Bode. “Learning how to do it eff ec� vely will help students compete for jobs and advance their careers.”

Biology teachers Drew Ising of Olathe North High School and Scott

Sharp of De Soto High School tour KU’s new algae facilities in summer 2013

A � l i

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ts

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ing of d Scott our KU’s

mer 2013

A new communicating science course for undergraduates

features skilled communicators like mechanical engineering

associate professor Chris Depcik

A

or es

mith res

tone

A

A new communicating science

Undergraduate researchers visit Topeka

In February, Jason Bates joined nine other KU undergraduate researchers and their peers from

other Kansas Board of Regents public universi� es to present research to legislators and the general public in

Topeka. Kansas Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol was started last year in an eff ort to highlight the unique

opportuni� es that undergraduate students have to par� cipate in research with faculty members at Kansas universi� es. Bates’ research,“Novel Solid Acid Catalysts for Biorenewable Chemical Produc� on,” is a project to develop eff ec� ve processes to use plant-based biomass as feedstock to make renewable chemicals in place of petrochemicals.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates

Undergraduate students from across the country came to KU last summer to do research, several with CEBC faculty. Two NSF funded programs, one in chemistry and one in chemical engineering, hosted the students. The group toured CEBC labs and learned about green chemistry from CEBC Director Bala Subramaniam. Educa� on Director Claudia Bode also led discussions about safety and ethics.

CEBC 2013-14 Annual Report | 10

Graduate students Qing Pan (l) and

Meng Li (r)

Presentations and Awards

Manoj Kumar, postdoctoral researcher in chemistry, gave oral presenta� ons at the Na� onal 245th ACS Mee� ng in

New Orleans, LA, in April 2013, and at the Na� onal 246th ACS Mee� ng in Indianapolis, IN, in September 2013

PhD student Shirley Xie won an outstanding PhD student award from The University of Kansas in May

PhD student David Minnick was awarded funding through the NSF Scholars Program to a! end a green

chemistry conference in Bethesda, MD, in June

PhD students Xin Jin and Arely Torres par� ci-pated in the North American Catalysis Society

mee� ng in Louisville, KY, in June, along with former CEBC postdoc Haijun Wan

Undergraduate student Jason Bates, along with PhD students Xin Jin, Arely Torres and Shirley Xie,

par� cipated in the AIChE Annual Mee� ng in San Francisco, CA, in November

David Minnick a! ended a Workshop on “Supercri� cal Fluids and Energy” (SFE 13)

in Campinas, Brazil, in December

Shirley Xie won a travel award to present her work at the 25th

Biennial Organic Reac� ons Catalysis Society Conference in Tucson, AZ, in March 2014

Director, Researchers Present at Shale Gas Workshop

Graduate student Xin Jin, Research Associate Anand Ramanathan and CEBC Director Bala Subramaniam shared their research at a Workshop on Shale Gas Mone� za� on this March in Montgomery, Texas. The event, sponsored by NSF and Shell, sparked conversa� ons about economic opportuni� es from the shale gas boom between researchers from around the world.

Ramanathan’s poster on CEBC’s novel ethylene oxide process, which included research from graduate student Wenjuan Yan and guidance from Subramaniam, won one of two best poster awards at the event.

Students &

Postdocs

Degrees and Employment

Xin Jin, PhD Chemical Engineering, will be a CEBC postdoctoral researcher

Meng Li, PhD Chemical Engineering, joined LP Amina Energy & Environ-mental Company

Qing Pan, MS Chemical Engineering, joined Chevron Corpora� on

Pasha Ryabchuk, PhD Chemistry, is a Uni-versity of Illinois postdoctoral researcher

Shirley Xie, PhD in Chemical Engineering, joined CEBC as a postdoctoral researcher

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recent publications

Selected Refereed Publica� ons, 2013For a complete list, visit our website: www.cebc.ku.edu

Banning, J.E.; Gen� llon, J.; Ryabchuk, P.G.; Prosser, A.R.; Rogers, A.; Edwards, A.; Holtzen, A.; Babkov, I.A.; Rubina, M.; Rubin, M. “Formal Subs� tu� on of Bromocyclopropanes with Nitrogen Nucleophiles,” J. Org. Chem. 2013 78:15 7601-7616.

Bravo-Suarez, J.J.; Chaudhari, R.V.; Subramaniam, B. “Design of Hetero-geneous Catalysis for Fuels and Chemicals Processing: An Overview,” in Novel Materials for Catalysis and Fuels Processing ACS Symposium Series 1132, Bravo-Suarez, Kidder, and Schwartz, Eds. 2013 3-68.

Bravo-Suárez, J.J.; Subramaniam, B.; Chaudhari, R.V. “Vapor-Phase Methanol and Ethanol Coupling Reac� ons on CuMgAl Mixed Metal Oxides,” App. Catal. A 2013 455 234-246.

Chaudhari, R.V.; Torres, A.; Jin, X.; Subramaniam, B. “Mul� phase Cata-ly� c Hydrogenolysis/Hydrodeoxygena� on Processes for Chemicals from Renewable Feedstocks: Kine� cs, Mechanism, and Reac� on Engi-neering,” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2013 52:44 15226-15243.

Ghanta, M.; Fahey, D. R.; Busch, D. H.; Subramaniam, B. “Compara� ve Economic and Environmental Assessments of H2O2-based and Ter-� ary Butyl Hydroperoxide-based Propylene Oxide Technologies,” ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 2013 1:2 267-277.

Ghanta, M.; Fahey, D.; Subramaniam, B. “Environmental impacts of ethylene produc� on from diverse feedstocks and energy sources,” Appl. Petrochem. Res. 2013 doi:10.1007/s13203-013-0029-7.

Ghanta, M.; Lee, H.-J.; Busch, D.H.; Subramaniam, B. “Highly Selec� ve Homogeneous Ethylene Epoxida� on in Gas (Ethylene)-Expanded Liq-uid: Transport and Kine� c Studies,” AIChE J. 2013 59:1 180-187.

Ghanta, M.; Ruddy, T.; Fahey, D.; Busch, D.; Subramaniam, B. “Is the Liquid-Phase H2O2-based Ethylene Oxide Process More Economical and Greener Than the Gas-Phase O2-based Silver-Catalyzed Process?” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2013 52:1 18-29.

Jin, X.; Dang, L.; Lohrman, J.; Subramaniam, B.; Ren, S.; Chaudhari, R.V. “La! ce-Matched Bimetallic CuPd-Graphene Nanocatalysts for Facile Conversion of Biomass-Derived Polyols to Chemicals,” ACS Nano 20137:2 1309-1316.

Jin, X.; Roy, D.; Thapa, P.S.; Subramaniam, B.; Chaudhari, R.V. “Atom Economical Aqueous-Phase Conversion (APC) of Biopolyols to Lac� c Acid, Glycols, and Linear Alcohols Using Supported Metal Catalysts,” ACS Sus. Chem. Eng. 2013 1:11 1453-1462.

Jin, X.; Subramaniam, B.; Chaudhari, R.V. “Ac� vity and Selec� vity of Base Promoted Mono and Bimetallic Catalysts for Hydrogenolysis of Xylitol and Sorbitol,” in Novel Materials for Catalysis and Fuels Process-ing ACS Symposium Series 1132, Bravo-Suarez, Kidder, and Schwartz, Eds. 2013 273-285.

Leto, D. F.; Cha" opadhyay, S.; Day, V. W.; Jackson, T. A. “Reac� on land-scape of a pentadentate N5-ligated MnII complex with O2.- and H2O2 includes conversion of a peroxomanganese(III) adduct to a bis(μ-oxo)-dimanganese(III,IV) species,” Dalton Trans. 2013 42 13014-13025.

Li, M.; Niu, F.; Zuo, X.; Metelski, P.D.; Busch, D.H.; Subramaniam, B. “A spray reactor concept for cataly� c oxida� on of p-xylene to produce high-purity terephthalic acid,” Chem. Eng. Sci. 2013 104 93-102.

Pan, Q.; Ramanathan, A.; Snavely, W.K.; Chaudhari, R.V.; Subramani-am, B. “Synthesis and Dehydra� on Ac� vity of Novel Lewis Acidic Or-dered Mesoporous Silicate: Zr-KIT-6,” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2013 52:44 15481-15487.

Ramanathan, A., Subramaniam, B., Maheswari, R., Hanefeld, U. “Syn-thesis, and characteriza� on of Zirconium incorporated ultra large pore mesoporous silicate, Zr-KIT-6,” Micropor. Mesopor. Mat. 2013167 207-212.

Ramanathan, A.; Maheswari, R.; P. S. Thapa; Subramaniam, B. “Rapid room temperature synthesis of Ce-MCM-48: an ac� ve catalyst for trans-s� lbene epoxida� on with tert-butyl hydroperoxide,” in Novel Materials for Catalysis and Fuels Processing ACS Symposium Series 1132, Bravo-Suarez, Kidder, and Schwartz, Eds. 2013 213-228.

Ramanathan, A.; R. Maheswari; Grady, B. P.; Moore, D. S.; Barich, D. H.; Subramaniam, Bala. “Tungsten-incorporated cage-type mesopo-rous silicate: W-KIT-5” Micro. Meso. Mat. 2013 175 43-49.

Ryabchuk, P.; Edwards, A.; Gerasimchuk, N.; Rubina, M.; Rubin, M. “Dual Control of the Selec� vity in the Formal Nucleophilic Subsi" u� on of Bromocyclopropanes en Route to Densely Func� onalized, Chirally Rich Cyclopropyl Deriva� ves,” Org. Le! . 2013 15:23 6010-6013.

Wan, H.; Chaudhari, R. V.; Subramaniam, B. “Aqueous Phase Hydroge-na� on of Ace� c Acid and Its Promo� onal Eff ect on p-Cresol Hydrode-oxygena� on,” Energy & Fuels 2013 27:1 487-493. Xie, Z.; Fang, J.; Subramaniam, B.; Mai� , S.K.; Snavely, W.; Tunge, J. A. “Enhanced hydroformyla� on by carbon dioxide-expanded media with soluble Rh complexes in nanofi ltra� on membrane reactors,” AIChE J. 2013 59:11 4287-4296.

Refereed Publica� ons, 2014 (through April 1)

Begum, R. A; Day, V. W.; Kumar, M.; Gonzalez, J.; Jackson, T. A.; Bow-man-James, K. “M---H-C interac� on--Agnos� c or not: A comparison of phenyl- versus pyridyl-bridged transi� on metal dimers,” Inorg. Chim. Acta 2014 In Press.

Bode, C.; Criss, M.; Ising, A.; McCue, S.; Ralph, S.; Sharp, S.; Smith, V.; Sturm, B. “Pond power: How to use algae to energize inquiry and interdisciplinary connec� ons,” The Science Teacher 2014 81:2 43-49.

Kern, J. L.; Laird, B. B. “Calcula� on of the interfacial free energy of a binary hard-sphere fl uid at a planar hard wall,” J. Chem. Phys. 2014 140:2 024703.

Kumar, M.; Busch, D. H.; Subramaniam, B.; Thompson, W. H. “Criegee Intermediate Reac� on with CO: Mechanism, Barriers, Conformer-De-pendence, and Implica� ons for Ozonolysis Chemistry,” J. Phys. Chem. A 2014 118:10 1887-1894.

Leto, D. F.; Jackson, T. A. “Peroxomanganese complexes as an aid to understanding redox-ac� ve manganese enzymes,” J. Bio. Inorg. Chem. 2014 19 1-15.

Li, M.; Niu, F.; Busch, D. H.; Subramaniam, B. “Kine� c Inves� ga� ons of p-Xylene Oxida� on to Terephthalic Acid with a Co/Mn/Br Catalyst in a Homogeneous Liquid Phase,” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2014 In Press.

Li, M.; Ruddy, T.; Fahey, D.; Busch, D. H.; Subramaniam, B. “Terephthal-ic Acid Produc� on via Greener Spray Process: Compara� ve Economic and Environmental Impact Assessments with Mid-Century Process,” ACS Sus. Chem. Eng. 2014 In Press.

Minnick, D. L.; Scurto, A. M. “Vapor-liquid equilibrium in the pro-duc� on of the ionic liquid, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([HMIm][Br]), in acetone,” Fluid Phase Equilibria 2014 365 11-19.

Ramanathan, A.; Maheswari, R.; Barich, D. H.; Subramaniam, B. “Nio-bium incorporated mesoporous silicate, Nb-KIT-6: Synthesis and char-acteriza� on,” Micro. Meso. Mat. 2014 190 240-247.

Selvaraj, M.; Shanthi, K.; Maheswari, R.; Ramanathan, A. “Hydrode-oxygena� on of Guaiacol over MoO3-NiO/mesoporous silicates: Eff ect of incorporated heteroatom,” Energy & Fuels 2014 In Press.

Wan, H.; Vi" er, A.; Chaudhari, R. V.; Subramaniam, B. “Kine� c inves-� ga� ons of unusual solvent eff ects during Ru/C catalyzed hydrogena-� on of model oxygenates,” J. Catal. 2014 309 174-184.