(82c) Building Catalysts, Reactors and Engineers for a Sustainable Future

Our planet must address pressing global issues such as climate change, food and water quality, and growing energy demand. Chemical engineering, including reactor design and catalysis development, are crucial to efficient production of fuels and chemical precursors and removal of toxins and pollutants from water and food sources. My research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory focuses on pioneering potential solutions to these challenges by combining advanced manufacturing (AM) and electrochemical engineering. Together, these approaches can be used to design and control catalyst structures, fluid dynamics, and mass transport phenomena from the sub-micron through the centimeter length scales; furthermore, AM allows for the exploration of novel reactor designs that would be otherwise unattainable through other manufacturing approaches. In this work, I demonstrate how we produced the first 3D-printed vapor-fed reactor for electrochemical CO₂ reduction, achieved remarkable selectivity and production of multi-carbon products such as ethylene and ethanol, and shifted the paradigm on how we create next generation of chemical reactor design. Finally, I will share how my nonprofit, the Feaster Foundation, focuses on encouraging and supporting underserved students who are passionate about helping others; this underscores my firm belief that the development of brilliant engineers is just as important as the development of incredible reactors.

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.