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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">NAME: </span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Sravan Kumar Kanchari Bavajigari</span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt"> </span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">DATE: </span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Monday, December 2, 2019</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">TIME: </span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">10:00AM</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">PLACE:</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> Chemical Engineering Conference Room</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">CHAIR/ADVISOR: </span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">Dr. Lars Grabow</span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:16.0pt">TITLE:</span></b><span style="font-size:16.0pt"></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt"> </span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt">USING WATER AND GOLD CATALYSTS TO GENERATE NOVEL SOLUTIONS FOR CURRENT ENERGY CHALLENGES: PURIFICATION OF HYDROGEN AND SELECTIVE OXIDATION OF METHANE</span></b></p>
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Renewable hydrogen (H<sub>2</sub>) is touted to be a possible replacement for carbon based fuels in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The current H<sub>2</sub> production route through steam reforming of natural gas followed by water-gas shift treatment,
however, indirectly releases CO<sub>2</sub> and accounts for 3-5% of our global energy use. Moreover, the CO content in the effluent H<sub>2</sub> stream from the water-gas shift reactor must be lowered for H<sub>2</sub> applications that are sensitive to
CO poisoning, for instance, fuel cells. In this work, supported gold catalysts in conjunction with water were used to purify hydrogen through preferential oxidation (PrOx) of CO with O<sub>2</sub> in hydrogen-rich streams. The PrOx approach is a more energy
efficient solution than the currently used CO methanation process. While water promotes O<sub>2</sub> activation, it was found to poison the active metal-support interface (MSI) sites and kinetically hinder H<sub>2</sub> activation at the MSI. Thus, water
plays two distinct roles in enhancing the selectivity for CO oxidation during PrOx. In the current work, the role of water in inhibiting the undesired H<sub>2</sub> oxidation reaction is probed with density functional theory, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
spectroscopy and kinetic experiments. </p>
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Methane is the primary component of shale gas and has attracted renewed attention to its potential direct conversion into value-added products such as methanol. The currently used two-stage process of steam reforming to synthesis gas, followed by methanol production
from synthesis gas is only profitable at very large scale considering the high energy and infrastructure requirements. In contrast, single step conversion of methane to methanol is attractive for distributed processing and yields a liquid product directly.
Environmentally benign O<sub>2</sub> and water mixtures were found to generate active oxygen species at the Au/TiO<sub>2</sub> MSI, avoiding the need to use expensive oxidants such as H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>. In the current work, the possible pathways for
methane upgrade are explored on Au/TiO<sub>2</sub> using the activated oxygen species generated from O<sub>2</sub>/H<sub>2</sub>O mixtures.</p>
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