Título da palestra: Probing the catalytic sites for hydrogen production from biomass-derived oxygenates

Resumo da palestra: A significant share of the wordeconomy depends on process that uses catalysts and demands the development of more efficient and environmental friendly alternatives. Hydrogen is an important energy carrier and competitive and cleaner ways for its production are being sought. Catalytic reforming reactions of biomass derivatives are a natural alternative to be pursued, targeting to substitute the use of fossil fuels, such as methane, by renewable sources, such as glycerol and ethanol. Despite significant advances in understading how the catalysts work in the set of reactions involved in the hydrogen production, much has to be overcome yet to achieve rational designing from first principles. In this long pathway, the striking development of the synthesis of nanomaterials coupled to advances in in situ characterization tools at atomic level have allowed addressing important aspects in catalyst development. In this talk, model Pt-supported catalysts and modulation excitation spectroscopy are used as examples to discuss the role of different catalytic sites in the hydrogen production.

Resumo do palestrante: Prof. Daniela Zanchet is an Associate Professor of the Inorganic Chemistry Department - University of Campinas, Brazil. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Federal University of Paraná and master and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Campinas. She worked as a post-doctorate fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and as a visiting researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She also worked as a researcher at the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Technology-LNLS for more than ten years where she coordinated the initiative to developing dedicated instrumentation for in situ studies of catalysts at LNLS, supported by Petrobras. Her group focuses on the development and study of heterogeneous catalysts, based on the exploration of model nanometric systems and advanced characterization tools. She has experience in the field of nanomaterials and heterogeneous catalysts, targeting hydrogen production, CO2 and CH4 conversion and up-grading of biomass-derivatives.