Cheap yet active Fischer-Tropsch catalysts: A Sasson-type solution
Gadi Rothenberg
Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam
Designing high-performance catalysts may be an art, but its consequences are very real and pragmatic. Unfortunately, chemists all too often build their designs on ideal systems, whereas the manufacturing of chemicals requires catalysts that can withstand varied feeds, harsh conditions and long exposure times. Moreover, the economical considerations that are so paramount to the chemical industry are often underestimated at the catalyst design stage. In this lecture, I will show the application of economical and topological considerations early on in the process can improve one’s chances of finding good catalysts.[1,2] This will be demonstrated with the invention of new catalysts for the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis,[3] a process nearly a century old.[4]
[1] V.R. Calderone, N.R. Shiju, D. Curulla-Ferré, S. Chambrey, A. Khodakov, A. Rose, J. Thiessen, A. Jess, G. Rothenberg, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 4397.
[2] V.R. Calderone, N.R. Shiju, D. Curulla-Ferré, A. Rose, J. Thiessen, A. Jess, E. van der Roest, B.V. Wiewel and G. Rothenberg, Top. Catal., 2014, 57, 1419.
[3] V.R. Calderone, N.R. Shiju, G. Rothenberg and D. Curulla-Ferré, WO2012/163969; WO2014/086812 (to Total S.A.).
[4] F. Fischer and H. Tropsch, Brennst.-Chem., 1923, 4, 276.
Prof. Gadi Rothenberg
Gadi Rothenberg has obtained his PhD in 1999 from the Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Yoel Sasson. After a postdoc in England, he move to the University of Amsterdam, where he is now Professor and Chair of Heterogeneous Catalysis and Sustainable Chemistry at the Van `t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences. He has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and discovered two catalysts, for which he received the Marie Curie Excellence Award in 2004 and the Paul Rylander Award in 2006. Rothenberg also invented 14 patents, and co-founded the companies Sorbisense A/S, Yellow Diesel BV and Plantics BV. His latest invention is a simple catalyst for cleaning out cyanide ions from industrial waste streams.