Wisconsin – Puerto Rico Partnership for Research and Education in Materials Seminar Series
Hydrogen-Transfer Catalysis in Biomass Conversion: From Isomerizations to Hydrogenations
Ive Hermans, PhD
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Professor of Chemistry and Chemical and Biological Engineering
Thursday, August 28, 2014
10:30AM Nursing Amphitheater
Abstract:
Catalytic hydrogen-transfer reactions are an indispensable type of transformations in biomass upgrading. In the first part of my presentation, Lewis-acid catalyzed isomerization of hexose sugars over Sn-Beta zeolite will be discussed using various spectroscopic and kinetic methods. Over the last years, a lot of academic effort has been made in understanding this reaction, since it is a key step in the catalytic upgrading of glucose towards numerous valuable chemical products. In the second part I will address the reductive upgrading of furfural-derivatives using transfer hydrogenation/hydrogenolysis under continuous flow conditions. For both case studies, emphasis will be put on chemical kinetics as a tool to understand the reaction mechanisms and to optimize the reaction engineering.
Biographical sketch:
After receiving his M.Sc. in physical chemistry from K.U.Leuven in Belgium (2002), Ive Hermans obtained a Ph.D. under the supervision of Profs. Pierre Jacobs and Jozef Peeters (2006). In addition to his scientific education, Ive Hermans also holds a postgraduate degree in Business Administration from the Leuven School of Business and Economics (K.U.Leuven, 2006). After a post-doc on in situ spectroscopy with Prof. Alfons Baiker, Ive Hermans became assistant professor for heterogeneous catalysis at ETH Zurich (2008). In 2009 he received the ExxonMobil Chemical European Science and Engineering Award. Since January 2014 he is an Associate Professor at UW-Madison, holding a dual appointment in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.