A "Transforming Energy" Lecture by Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos
April 15, 2011

Abstract

New technologies for the utilization of both renewable and fossil fuels are needed to meet the ever growing demand for energy worldwide. Catalysis plays a central role in our quest for sustainable energy solutions, and new catalyst designs are emerging for fuel production and utilization processes, enabled by recent advances in nanotechnology and characterization techniques. This presentation will focus on research conducted at the Nano Catalysis and Energy Lab at Tufts, especially in the area of hydrogen production through water-gas shift and methanol steam reforming reactions, carried out with sub-nm clusters of gold and platinum on various supports. Au-O and Pt-O species fully dispersed and stabilized on oxide surfaces have excellent activity for the water-gas shift reaction; while 100% selectivity to hydrogen in methanol decomposition and steam reforming reactions is possible on Au-O active sites. Properly designed catalysts at the nanoscale with only trace amounts of precious metals will offer new economic solutions to the way we generate energy both now and in the future.

Biography

Maria Flytzani-Stephanopoulos is the Robert and Marcy Haber Endowed Professor in Energy Sustainability in Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University. She received a B.S. from the National Technical Univ. of Athens, Greece, M.S. from the Univ. of Florida, and a Ph.D. from the Univ. of Minnesota, all in chemical engineering. She joined the Dept. of Chemical Engineering at Tufts in 1994 as the Raytheon Professor in Pollution Prevention.  Her prior professional experience was as a principal research associate at MIT and a member of the technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, CA. Her research interests are in clean and efficient energy production through advancements in heterogeneous catalysis. At Tufts, she directs the Nano Catalysis and Energy Laboratory, which investigates nanoscale catalysts for fuel processing, pollution abatement, and hydrogen production. She has authored and co-authored 130 papers and holds eight patents. Flytzani-Stephanopoulos is a fellow of the AAAS and the AIChE.  She is a recipient of the Henry J. Albert Award of the Intl. Precious Metals Institute (2008) and the Distinguished Scholar Award of Tufts University (2007). Since 2002, she has served as Editor of Applied Catalysis B: Environmental.