Webinar on Catalysis and Chemical Engineering

Jacob A. Moulijn is emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Delft University of Technology (19902007) and at the University of Amsterdam (1986-1990), visiting professor at several universities, including University of Delaware, USA, University of Gent, Belgium, National University of Singapore the University of Mumbai, India and Cardiff University, UK. During the nineties he was active in China for the UN-World Bank. He is active as consultant for several companies. He is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of the Åbo University, Finland and received several awards, including the BP Energy Price, and the NWO-STW ‘Simon Stevin Meesterschap’ award (2000). His research interests include: catalysis engineering, catalytic reactors, zeolitic membranes, kinetics, mass transfer, multiphase monolithic reactors, catalyst testing, petroleum conversion (Hydrotreatment, FCC, FischerTropsch), exhaust gas catalysis (soot from diesel engines, N2O removal, NO abatement, H2S removal, CFC conversion), selective hydrogenation, selective oxidation, photo- and electrocatalysis, catalyst synthesis by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), coal conversion (gasification, pyrolysis, combustion), and biomass conversion. He is (co-) author of over 750 technical papers, co-author of two books, editor of seven books, holder of several patents (reactor design, zeolitic membranes, catalyst development, biomass conversion).

Dan Meyerstein is a Professor of Chemistry at Ariel University and Professor Emeritus at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. He Received his Ph.D. in 1965. He has over 350 papers. He was president of Ariel University and President of the Israel Chemical Society.

Gabor A. Somorjai has been a leader in the field of Catalysis for more than 45 years. He has published almost 1200 papers and 4 books. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1960 and he was appointed to the faculty there in 1964. Since then, he has won just about every honor in his field. In 2011 he was the recipient of the Honda Prize, the ENI New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize and the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award. He has received the Priestley Medal (2008), the National Medal of Science (2002) the Wolf Prize (1998). Somorjai became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1979 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1983

Prof. Litter has a Ph.D. in Chemistry (Buenos Aires University, Argentina), with postdoctoral studies at the University of Arizona, USA. She was head of the Division of Environmental Chemistry Remediation (National Atomic Commission of Argentina), Senior Researcher of the National Research Council and Full Professor at the University of General San Martín. She has more than 200 scientific publications in international journals, books, and book chapters. She received the Mercosur Prize in Science and Technology (2006 and 2011) and was President of the International Congress on Arsenic in the Environment (2014). She was designated pioneer on photocatalysis in Argentina (2016).

Huijun Zhao obtained his PhD in Chemistry (1994) from the University of Wollongong, Australia. He held Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow positions during 1994-1997 in the University of Wollongong and University of Western Sydney. He took a Lecturer position at Griffith University in 1997 and was subsequently promoted to Senior Lecturer (2001), A/Professor (2003), Chair Professor of Griffith Commercialization Laboratory (2005). He currently holds a professorial position in School of Environment and Science and is the Direct of the Centre for Clean Environment and Energy at Griffith University. He is also the Director of the Centre for Environmental and Energy Nanomaterials at the Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Prof. Zhao has won a number of awards such as The R.H. Stokes Medal and University Research Leadership Award, and is the Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and the Fellow of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (FRACI). He has expertise in energy and environmental nanomaterials, water source control and management system, field-based sensing technologies and aquatic environmental quality assessment. One of his current pursuits is to explore new means to unlock the catalytic powers of nonprecious materials as high performance catalysts for important catalysis reactions. Prof. Zhao has published over 400 refereed journal papers that attracted over 22,000 citations and earned him an H-index of 78. He has also gained 68 international patents within 8 world-wide patent families in functional nanomaterials & nanotechnology, photoelectrocatalysis and environmental monitoring systems.

Nguyen Ba Duc born and grew up in Thai Nguyen province and now is a lecturer in faculty of Physics in the University of Tan Trao in Tuyen Quang province, one of the province in the region north mountainous of Vietnam. He holds a doctor of Phylosophy of Physics and currently he is teaching some subjects of fields theoretical physics and computational physics. Duc has been involved many conferences of science in Association of Southeast Asian Nations and in the world. Recently, he has presented an abstract “The influence of confined phonons on Ettingshausen effects in Quantum well with parabolic potential in the presence of electromagnetic wave” at the 43rd National Conference on Theoretical Physics in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, August 2018.

Dr. Jin An Wang is a full professor in Chemical Engineering in the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico City, Mexico. He is a Mexican National Researcher and a member of Mexican Academy of Sciences. Dr. Wang is coauthor of more than 160 scientific publications and 5 patents and coeditor of 3 books in advanced new catalytic materials and 3 special volumes in Catalysis Today. He served as chair of the First to Fifth International Symposium on New Catalytic Materials. Dr. Wang was a visiting professor of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-A, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute in USA. His research interest focuses on the synthesis of new catalytic materials, catalysis for petroleum refining, catalysis for clean fuel production and environmental catalysis.

Professor Hall obtained his B. S. degree in Chemistry from Juniata College. Following his Ph. D. work with Richard Fenske at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, he was awarded an AEI postdoctoral fellowship in theoretical chemistry at the University of Manchester, England, where he studied with Ian Hillier. Professor Hall’s career at Texas A&M University began in 1975 when he accepted an appointment as Assistant Professor of Chemistry. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1980 and Professor in 1983. He served as Head of the Department from 1986 to 1994, and as Executive Associate Dean in the College of Science from 1997 to 2017. He founded and has directed the Laboratory of Molecular Simulation since 1997 and was named Davidson Professor of Science in 2004. His research interests are directed toward understanding chemical structures, reactions, and catalysis through state-of-the-art quantum calculations. Applications transition-metal activation of carbon-hydrogen and carbon-carbon bonds, and biocatalysis by metalloenzymes are among his current interests. He has served on the editorial advisory board of the Organometallics and Theoretical Chemistry Accounts; and on the Advisory Board of the Center for Molecular Electrocatalysis an EFRC center at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Guangren Qian is currently the deputy director of Advanced Research Institute, Shanghai University. He is also a professor of School of Environmental & Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University; Director of Professional Committee of Shanghai Solid Waste Management, Shanghai; Deputy Director of Professional Committee of National Industrial Ecology, China. Prof. Qian’s research interesting included MSW solid waste Management and Hazardous Waste Management, Heavy metals bearing waste-derived environmental materials exploring and application, Biomass waste-derived biomass energy utilization and biochar utilization, Biogas utilization of MSW solid waste leachate by EGSB bioreactor and enhanced AOD purification of refractory organic substances. At present, Prof. Qian focused on the high-value added utilization of environmental waste and its direct conversion into energy and energy-conversion catalyst. In the field of his research interests, Prof. Qian has more than 160 publications, including 35 patents, 5 books/chapters, 120 original and review papers with >3,000 citations.

Vania Nayeli Enguilo Gonzaga is Chemical Engineering from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM). Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s Degree in Chemical Sciences at the UAEM. Her current research is focused on the heterogeneous catalysis and transesterification of vegetable oils to obtain biodiesel. She worked at DuPont Crop Protection like engineer of quality assurance, and during this time, she obtained an ISO certification as quality auditor, also she collaborated with the implementation and validation of analytical methods. Nowadays, she is making a research stay at Castilla-La Mancha University, Spain. The purpose of her research stay is characterizing the bifunctional catalysts synthesized and the study about doping of nanomaterials with nitrogen heteroatoms.

Jia Zhang is currently an Associated Professor in SHU Center of Green Urban Mining & Industry Ecology, School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University. He also works in Shanghai Institute of Materials Genome. Dr Zhang’s research interest and expertise mainly focused on high-value-added utilization of hazardous solid waste. To this aim, he synthesized catalyst from heavy-metal containing waste, and applied it in various catalysis, including decomposition of greenhouse gas SF6, selective catalytic reduction of nitric oxide, catalytic oxidization of hydrogen sulfide, photocatalytic decomposition of organic waste and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Besides, he is working on CH4/H2S conversion to H2 from landfill gas by heavy-metal containing waste-derived catalyst at present. Dr Zhang has authored/co-authored >20 journal publications in the areas of high-value-added utilization of hazardous solid waste.

Dr. Anjali Patel, Prof. of Inorganic Chemistry, after receiving her Ph.D. in 1992, pursued Post-Doctoral studies at Institut de la Recherch Sur la Catalyse, CNRS, Lyon, France during 1992-93 and currently is Head, Department of Chemistry, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara, Gujarat, INDIA. Her research interest focuses on Polyoxometalates, Heterogeneous Catalysis, Green Chemistry and Material Science. She has 117 papers in international journals including two review articles in Green Chemistry (RSC) and Catalysis Reviews Science and Engineering (Taylor and Francis), 3 patents, 5 book chapters and 2 books to her credit. She has visited various countries like USA, UK, China, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan at various international conferences as invited speaker. Further, she has been awarded the prestigious Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) and a three year membership at the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Two dimensional materials possess inherent advantages to improve electrocatalytic performance. First, two dimensional nanosheets have large surface–volume ratio, which can promote the adsorption of substrates and provide high specific surface area for electrocatalytic reactions. Moreover, the 2D nature of the nanosheets indicates short diffusion distance for electrons, which causes faster charge transfer rate and better turnover frequency. Therefore, Constructing of 2D ultrathin nanosheets is an effective strategy to achieve high electrocatalytic performance. Our group recently reported a series of 2D ultrathin materials: (1) Bimetal ultrathin metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) nanosheets were successfully prepared through a simple ultrasonic oscillation method. Due to the ultrathin feature, the surface metal atoms are highly coordinated unsaturated, which greatly benefit the adsorption process, thus offering outstanding performance. Besides, two kinds of metal atoms could generate the coupling pair, which could effectively promote the charge transfer.1 (2) On the basis of ultrathin nanosheets, novel 3D flower-like Ni2P were synthesized through the self-assembly of ultrathin Ni2P nanosheets, which retain the 2D structural advantages and offer faster electrons transfer compared with dispersed unassembled 2D nanosheets.2 (3) To further optimized the catalytic performance, 3D porous core-shell ultrathin nanosheets were prepared via a facile stepwise hydrothermal method. The ingenious architecture possess numerous channels for the diffusion of substrates, ideal pathway for electron transfer and larger area for adsorption compared with imporous nanosheets. Collectively, our constructing strategy provided a successful practice to prepare a series of high-efficient catalysts.

Martin Nielsen holds a PhD in Chemistry from Aarhus University, Denmark, and is currently an assistant professor at DTU Chemistry in Denmark. The Nielsen lab is doing research in homogeneous organometallic chemistry. The three main focusses are to develop novel and superior catalysts for hydrogen storage and biomass valorization, studying polynuclear complexes, and developing supramolecular cages with the ability to encapsulate small molecules for a variety of purposes. Martin is the recipient of several prestigious research grant, including the VILLUM Young Investigator grant.

Professor Rénal Backov obtained his Ph.D. in 1997 at the University of Montpellier II, France. After being an associate researcher at the University of Florida (Gainesville, USA), to address inorganic chemistry, he was hired as associated Professor at the University of Bordeaux (France) in 2001 while being full Professor since 2010. He has currently invited professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge USA). With more than 140 articles, 35 patents and 380 contributed papers, his field of research encompasses the domains of energy conversion (hydrogen storage, batteries, biofuel cells), drug delivery, sensors, heterogeneous catalysis (enzymatic, metallic, bacteriologic), photocatalysis, photonics, and beyond.

Iman Ghasemi was born in 1997. Iman earned a B.Sc. degree in chemical engineering from the Sahand University of Technology where he gained experience in water treatment by photocatalysis process under the supervision of Prof. Mohammad Haghighi. Since 2018 he has been joined Reactor and Catalysis Research Center and working on the nano photocatalyst synthesis and their applications in different organic dye degradation. Last summer, he worked for more than 4 months for “Azar Sahand Plastic Production Plant” as an intern in its quality control laboratory. His research interests include the “Green” synthesis of nanocatalysts and its application in air and water pollution control and treatment, and the study of their reaction mechanisms and kinetics.

Sahar Dehghani is Ph.D. of Chemical engineering from Sahand University of Technology in May 2019. She got M.Sc. degree of Chemical engineering in the field of catalysis from the Razi University in Feb. 2012. Also, she got her B.Sc. degree in chemical engineering from Mohaghegh Ardabili in Feb. 2008. She had taught the lab course of “Chemistry (I)” at Sahand University of Technology for three terms. She has been working in the Reactor and Catalysis Research Center (RCRC) at Sahand University of Technology since 21 Sep. 2013 under supervision of Professor Mohammad Haghighi. Her research focuses on biodiesel production by heterogeneous catalysts in both M.Sc. and Ph.D.

Hossein Zainalzadeh is a Bachelor of Science degree student in Chemical Engineering at Sahand University of Technology and will complete his undergraduate degree on September 30, 2019. He was a member of the Nanotechnology and Science Committee for one year and teaching assistant (TA) in the "Fluid Mechanics" course for two semesters from October 1, 2018 to June 17, 2019. During his education, Hossein was one of the two undergraduate students who could enter the research centers as a research assistant (RA). Hossein has been working as a researcher under the supervision of Professor Mohammad Haghighi for three years. His research areas of interest are CO Oxidation, Hydrogen and Biodiesel production, designing and synthesis of nanostructure catalysts. Hossein’s B.Sc thesis focused on the biodiesel production over SAPO-34. Last summer, Hossein worked as an intern at Khoy Combined Cycle Power Plant. Presently he is planning to study M.Sc. in the related fields.

Mahdiyeh Mohammadzadeh is M.Sc. student in Chemical engineering and Catalysis at Sahand University of Technology. She holds a B.Sc. in Chemical engineering from the same university and her degree was awarded in Sept. 2013. She has been working in the Reactor and Catalysis Research Center (RCRC) at Sahand University of Technology since 21 January 2019. She is keen to research in the areas of catalysts under supervision of Professor Mohammad Haghighi. Her research focuses on synthesis of photocatalysts for environmental applications and water treatment. After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked as an English language teacher at Alef institute (www.alefsite.ir) from 2016 to 2018. In spite of her interest in teaching English, she decided to continue her graduate studies. Currently, she is the top student of her master's class. Mahdiyeh is going to pursue a Ph.D. program as soon as completion of her master's next year.

Mehdi Mohammadpour holds a bachelor degree of science in Chemical Engineering from Azad University of Tehran. He was the director of education at several companies from July 16, 2013. He worked as an intern in PetroTech Company. At present, he is studying M.Sc. Chemical Engineering at Sahand University of Technology. His Master's thesis is about biodiesel (Green Fuel) production for Environmental purposes under the supervision of Professor Mohammad Haghighi and collaboration of Reza Shokrani (Ph.D. Student). Another area of his research focuses on Methane and Ethane Reforming. Mehdi is a member of Reactor and Catalysis Research Center (RCRC) from January 12, 2018 up to now.

Zahra Abdollahizadeh is M.Sc. student in Chemical engineering and Catalysis at Sahand University of Technology. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemical engineering from Azad University of Tabriz. She has been working in the Reactor and Catalysis Research Center (RCRC) at Sahand University of Technology since July 2018. Her field is catalyst, and she is the top student of this field. She is interested in environmental projects and is working on the photocatalytic degradation of the antibiotic pollutant from wastewaters. Her supervisor is Professor Mohammad Haghighi who is one of the prominent figures of this field. Zahra will be graduated next month and as soon as she is going to start her doctoral program.

Aayushi Arora is a research scholar currently pursuing her doctorate in Chemistry under the guidance of Dr. Arun Kumar at Department of Chemistry, Doon University, Dehradun, India. Her research work includes designing of chalcogen ligated molecular and nano catalytic systems for various chemical reactions such as C−C, C−O, C−N cross-coupling reactions and reduction of nitroarenes. In addition, she is also involved in designing fluorescent probes containing Ru(II) polypyridyl unit for the detection of metal ions and sensing applications by host guest interaction.

Preeti Oswal is a research scholar and pursuing her Ph.D. in chemistry at Doon University, Dehradun, India, under the mentorship of Dr. Arun Kumar. She holds a M.Sc. in chemistry from Shoolini University, Solan. She is a recipient of the prestigious DST−INSPIRE Fellowship of Government of India. Currently, she is working on the development of new homogenous and heterogeneous catalytic systems. She is also involved in exploring various transition metal nanoparticles and employing them as catalysts in various chemical transformations like Suzuki coupling, Heck coupling, Transfer hydrogenation of ketones, C−O coupling, reduction of nitroarenes, etc.

Jozsef Kupai works as an assistant professor at Budapest University of Technology and Economics Hungary, he delivers organic chemistry lectures and practices. He is the head of the Organocatalysis Research Group at the Department of Organic Chemistry and Technology. The expertise of the Kupai group (www.kupaigroup.com) members centers on the synthesis, application, and recovery of cinchona based organocatalysts. Dr. Kupai collaborates with Dr. Gyorgy Szekely at the University of Manchester. The Szekely Group is responsible for the process design encompassing flow reactors coupled with membrane purification.

Sándor Nagy is a third year PhD student at the George Oláh Doctoral School, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. He works under the supervision of Dr. József Kupai in the Organocatalysis Research Group (www.kupaigroup.com) at the Department of Organic Chemistry and Technology. His research focuses on design, synthesis, application and recycling of cinchona-based organocatalysts.

Péter Kisszékelyi is a fourth year PhD student at the George Oláh Doctoral School, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. He works under the supervision of Dr. József Kupai in the Organocatalysis Research Group (www.kupaigroup.com) at the Department of Organic Chemistry and Technology. His research focuses on cinchona-based recyclable organocatalyst design and other sustainable catalytic methodologies.

Faraz Ahmad is currently doing MS in Chemical Engineering from the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, Shanxi, Peoples Republic of China. Faraz is working as a research assistant in the Key Laboratory of Coal Science and Technology of Ministry of Education and Shanxi Province. His research topic is “Production of styrene and ethylbenzene by side-chain alkylation of toluene with methanol”. Specifically, his expertise is in the following area: catalyst preparation, characterization of catalysts. Previously in his BS, he has done a research project entitled “Production of Methanol from Coal”. Apart from an educational career he has two years of teaching experience in a reputable HEC recognized University in Pakistan.

Soroush karamian is a researcher in the R&D department in Jam Petrochemical Company(JPC) in Iran. Our research field focused on catalysts and green technology. This paper is a result of an experiment for Treatment of Jam Petrochemical Company by Wet Air Oxidation ‎‎(WAO) method‎.

Giovanni Palmisano is assistant professor of chemical engineering at the Khalifa University of Science and Technology Abu Dhabi (UAE). Giovanni’s research activities have been developed in Italy, Spain and UAE and concern photo-catalytic processes for organic chemistry, hydrogen production, water and air remediation, self-cleaning coatings, and hybrid photovoltaics. From 2009 to 2012, he was administrator, chief engineer and safety manager at Hedera Engineering Srl – an Italian company operating in the field of solar energy plants. From 2008 to 2013 he has held free-lance consulting activity for private companies and Italian municipalities. He has co-authored ca. 95 journals papers and he has to his record seven patents, six books and six invited book chapters. He has been main advisor of 4 PhD students and advisor/co-advisor of 6 MSc students, one of whom won the best thesis award in Chemical Engineering and the outstanding thesis award in Masdar Institute.