Speaker: Emiel Hensen
EindhovenUniversity of Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Inorganic Materials & Catalysis


Topic: (Electro)catalyzing the energy transition


We have far more oil, coal and gas than we can safely burn. Tackling global warming implies that we must leave most of our fossil reserves in the ground. This will require a completely different way of running our economy, shifting largely away from liquid fuels for mobility and deriving our chemicals and materials as much as possible from renewable resources. I will discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise from these changes and the enabling role that catalysis can play in the energy transition using examples of our own research.

A view on our “catalysis by design” approach will be presented, which starts from molecular level understanding of reaction mechanism in relation to the atomic scale structure of catalytic surfaces. This approach is applied to the conversion of small molecules such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and methane. A specific issue to be discussed is how to use tools, techniques and lessons learned from thermal (heterogeneous) catalysis to the field of electrocatalysis. I will first discuss the relevance of different polymorphs of MoS2 as hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts with the potential to replace more expensive Pt standard HER electrocatalysts. A second example pertains to microkinetic simulations of electrochemical reactions, viz. the electrochemical reduction of CO2 to C1 products on Cu electrodes, in which mass transfer limitations will be taken into account in a first-principles based electrochemokinetic network of the underlying elementary reaction steps.

Lunch is free but you need to register (in view of the catering) by sending an email to: e-refinery@tudelft.nl before Monday November 3, 2019.