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A Newsletter From ChemCatBio | January 2025 |
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After Years of Success, We Look Into the Future
It’s an exciting time for the Chemical Catalysis for Bioenergy Consortium (ChemCatBio), and I’m honored to step into the role of director. First, I want to extend a huge thank you to Josh Schaidle for his leadership, from the inception of the consortium through its growth over the past eight years. And more personally, I’d like to acknowledge his guidance over the past two years while I served as deputy director. Josh was instrumental in positioning the consortium as a central hub of knowledge at the intersection of catalysis and bioenergy research. Today, ChemCatBio has an h-index of 53, with over 180 publications. We have published five Technology Briefs to summarize and contextualize recent advances and insights in catalytic technologies in an interactive, easy-to-read format. We’ve hosted 13 public webinars, and we maintain strong partnerships across industry, academia, and the national laboratories, exemplified by the more than 150 individuals who have directly contributed to the consortium’s success.
I remember when the consortium first came together in 2016, and we were building partnerships across the national laboratories to work on pressing needs for a variety of transformations in biomass conversion catalysis. Through the years, we set substantive goals and made significant advancements in pathway-specific technology and toward addressing overarching challenges in catalysis science. We’ve worked closely with our funding sponsor, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO), to bring ChemCatBio’s considerable cross-discipline expertise to bear on the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Grand Challenge and made great strides in advancing several fuel pathways toward commercialization.
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Now, in the third year of our current R&D cycle, we are nearing the culmination of these efforts. We’ve advanced the adoption readiness of multiple SAF pathways by using engineered catalyst forms and realistic process streams to produce liquid fuels for aviation fuel property testing. Over the past six years, we secured more than $30 million in additional project funding to advance technologies developed within ChemCatBio, establishing the consortium as a force multiplier by delivering value beyond the initial investment from BETO. As we look to the future, we are preparing to leverage the consortium’s considerable tools, capabilities, expertise, and devoted research staff to innovate new catalytic pathways to access fuel and chemical products that will impact the bioeconomy.
Best regards,
Dan Ruddy ChemCatBio Director
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ChemCatBio Webinar: An Introduction to Programmable Catalysis for Chemical Energy Technology
January 29, 2025, 2–2:45 p.m. ET
Researchers have created a new class of programmable catalytic materials that oscillate in electronic state at the natural frequencies of elementary reactions and catalytic cycles using external perturbation. In this ChemCatBio webinar, Paul Dauenhauer (University of Minnesota) will introduce concepts of programmable chemistry and present experimental and computational results, the design of experimental catalytic devices, and the principles associated with this emerging field of chemistry.
Register now and learn more about this webinar.
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ChemCatBio To Host Symposium at March American Chemical Society Meeting
March 23–27, 2025
ChemCatBio will host its annual symposium in the Catalysis Science and Technology (CATL) Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in San Diego, CA, highlighting research from the consortium and its partners. In addition to themes around catalyst and process development, this year’s full-day symposium will include emerging topics in biomass conversion catalysis, including artificial intelligence/machine-learning R&D and new catalysis and processes driven by alternative energy sources.
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“I Am ChemCatBio”: Claire Yang, Los Alamos National Laboratory |
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"I think we are going to make a big difference in the bioenergy world and also make huge contributions to commercialize new technologies."
Xiaokun (Claire) Yang | Los Almost National Laboratory
 "I Am ChemCatBio" highlights a handful of more than 120 researchers working together to accelerate the development of technologies for converting biomass and waste resources into sustainable fuels and renewable chemicals.
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Apply Now for ACS Student Travel Awards
The ACS CATL Division solicits applications for CATL–ChemCatBio Graduate Student Travel Awards, covering the registration fee of graduate students presenting at the Spring 2025 ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA. These travel awards aim to provide educational opportunities in catalysis, support professional development of young scientists, and foster diversity and inclusion in chemical process research.
Stay Tuned for ChemCatBio Industry Listening Session
As the consortium closes out its 2023–2025 research cycle and seeks to innovate in a new 3-year research cycle, ChemCatBio aims to hold an industry listening session in 2025. Stay tuned for more details on this event, which will focus on understanding the market dynamics for bio-derived chemical products that complement SAF production pathways.
Catalyst Scientist Dan Ruddy Is the New Director of ChemCatBio
Congratulations to Daniel Ruddy for his new role as director of ChemCatBio! Under Ruddy’s leadership, ChemCatBio will continue to deliver on its R&D focuses, as well as capitalize on opportunities to innovate new catalytic pathways to access fuel and chemical products.
ChemCatBio Welcomes David Cullen and Udishnu Sanyal to Consortium Steering Committee
Please welcome David Cullen, senior R&D staff member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Udishnu Sanyal, staff scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, to the esteemed ChemCatBio Steering Committee.
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Renewable Revelation
“In the dynamic landscape of technology and innovation, consortia play a pivotal role in driving collaboration that enables faster market acceptance of new products and technologies.”
This article from IEEE-ISTO presents five reasons why consortia thrive with the right partnerships. ChemCatBio has benefited from the consortium approach to R&D and is now positioned to deliver on its three-year goals.
Source: The IEEE Industry Standards and Technology Organization, April 15, 2024. https://ieee-isto.org/isto-blog/five-reasons-consortia-thrive-with-ieee-isto/
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Recent Research Highlights |
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