The Catalyst Review August 2020 - 12

SPECIAL FEATURE
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Berkeley College of Chemistry, Green Chemistry researchers: (multiple groups), activation of small molecules, sustainable
electrosynthesis, biofuels and biocatalysis.
Prof Alexis Bell, the Dow Professor for Sustainable Chemistry at UC Berkeley runs a research group covering catalysis for biofuels
from biomass, and syngas from CO2 and H2O.
The Hartwig Group, directed by Prof John F. Hartwig, whose research focuses on C-H bond functionalisation, organic synthesis
catalyzed by transition metal catalysts, biomass to renewable chemicals and fuels as well as combinatorial catalyst discovery.

UC Berkeley has an excellent record of spin-offs involving catalysis. Amyris, a producer of consumer and industrial renewables, is one
such example. Opus 12 is another spin-off with a technology for CO2 utilization, turning waste CO2 into chemicals and fuels.
Stanford University
Stanford University in California was founded in 1885 by the state senator at the time Leland Stanford and his wife Jane. It has seven
schools: Business; Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences; Education; Engineering; Humanities & Sciences; Law and Medicine. It has
over 16,000 students and 2,220 faculty staff. The Stanford President is Marc Tessier-Lavigne. Chemistry disciplines are carried out
within the school of Humanities and Sciences.
There are several departments at Stanford involved in catalysis located either on the main campus or at the SLAC Campus.
SLAC Campus:
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The Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
The Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL)
The Center for Sustainable Energy through Catalysis (SUNCAT)
The PULSE Institute for Ultrafast Energy Science

Stanford Campus:
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The Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM)
The Precourt Institute for Energy (PIE)
The Woods Institute for the Environment

Most catalysis at Stanford is housed within the Center for Interface Science and Catalysis (SUNCAT), directed by Thomas Francisco
Jaramillo. SUNCAT is a collaboration between the Stanford School of Engineering and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. It
works on challenges relating to catalysis for sustainable energy conversion and storage. Its approach is a combination of experimental
and computational methods. SUNCAT has had several achievements in the area of low carbon fuels. In a collaboration with the
Technical University of Denmark (DTU), the team developed a cerium oxide catalyst for reduction of CO2 to CO, which can then be
converted to methane or liquid transportation fuels (Skafte et al., 2019). Some key groups involved in catalysis for decarbonization
are:
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The Cargnello Group, Department of Chemical Engineering: directed by Prof Matteo Cargnello. Key activities include the design,
synthesis and characterization of heterogeneous catalysts and photocatalysts and their stability. Specifically, catalyst for chemical
transformations involving hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, water, and nitrogen.
The Jaramillo Research Group, directed by Prof Thomas Jaramillo which researches nanomaterials for electrocatalytic and
photoelectrocatalytic production of low carbon hydrogen, hydrocarbons, methanol and ammonia.
The Hahn Laboratory, directed by Prof Christopher Hahn, combines skills of heterogeneous catalysis and organic electrosynthesis
to develop electrochemical transformations of CO2, O2, and biomass-derived feedstocks.
The Bent Research Group directed by Prof Stacey Bent. Her group's research works on the controlled synthesis of nanomaterials
using techniques such as atomic layer deposition (ALD) and applied to reactions such as CO, CO2 and H2 combination to
transportation fuels.

SUNCAT has received funding from Stanford University, the US DOE, BASF, Haldor-Topsoe, Toyota, the Global Climate Change &
Energy Project, the Danish Agency for Science Technology & Innovation and the Villum Foundation.
CCOE Benefits to Industry
As this article has shown, CCOE have a very powerful skill base and collective experience. They continue to evolve to meet the current
and future grand societal challenges and much of their research is aimed at providing real-world solutions to societal and industrial
needs. Hundreds of spin-off companies have been launched as a result of catalysis research on a global level and these have the
potential to disrupt and improve upon current manufacturing methods.
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The Catalyst Review

August 2020

The Catalyst Review August 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review August 2020