CHEMICAL LOOPING AND REDOX PATHWAYS USING SOLID REACTION MEDIUMS FOR SUSTAINABLE CO₂ AND METHANE CONVERSION
Date: September 02, 2026 Time: 11:00 AM Location: SBASSE Dean's Smart Lab
Speaker: Dr. Sherafghan Iftikhar
The transition toward sustainable energy and chemical production requires new approaches to utilize carbon-containing feedstocks while reducing energy use and greenhouse-gas emissions. In this seminar, I will discuss our research on redox-active materials for the thermochemical conversion of CO₂ and methane into useful chemical building blocks. I will introduce chemical looping and hybrid redox processes as alternatives to conventional catalytic routes for CO₂ utilization, with a focus on perovskite-based redox materials. I will discuss how compositional tuning, oxygen-vacancy engineering, and surface modification can control redox thermodynamics and reaction kinetics. Computationally guided materials screening combined with experimental validation was used to identify promising oxygen carriers for methane partial oxidation and CO₂ splitting, while catalytic promoters were explored to enhance reaction kinetics. I will also highlight how La–Ni–Fe perovskites can be tailored to function as oxygen or carbon carriers, enabling tunable syngas production and concentrated CO streams at relatively lower temperatures. Finally, I will discuss challenges related to catalyst deactivation, regeneration, stability, scalability, and energy efficiency. Overall, the talk will demonstrate how linking material composition, redox chemistry, reaction kinetics, and process design can enable new thermochemical pathways for low-carbon fuels and chemicals.
02
Sep
Date: September 02, 2026
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: SBASSE Dean's Smart Lab
Speaker: Dr. Sherafghan Iftikhar