PULLMAN, Wash. – Jean-Sabin McEwen, assistant professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, served as a co-editor for a recently published special issue on computational catalysis in the journal Catalysis Today.
Computational catalysis has drawn increasing interest in recent years as researchers employ computer modeling to shed light on experimental observations of and even predict their catalytic behavior.
The special issue covers several topics in catalysis, including microporous materials, electrocatalysis, and development of new computational approaches. It covers a wide array of applications, including modeling of processes from the atomic level to full reactor scale.
Several papers in the special issue discuss electrocatalysis, which uses electric fields to improve catalytic reactions. Last year, a team of WSU researchers applied electrocatalysis to improve an important reaction in the oil and gas industry. The advance could allow the industry to make use of methane that is currently burned off as waste in natural gas fields.
Another paper in the issue focuses on single-site catalysis, in which researchers utilize a single atom as a catalyst to convert natural gas into liquid fuels in energy-efficient ways.
“A common theme of all the papers is the use of computational catalysis to optimize the chemistry for energy applications,” said McEwen.
The special issue came out of last year’s North American Catalysis Society conference, the premier conference on catalysis research. The editorial team included representatives from academia, national labs, and industry.
Contact:
- Tina Hilding, communications director, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, 509-335-5095, thilding@wsu.edu
