The Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI)
The Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation was established as an Energy Frontier Research Center in 2009 by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The center's research focus is to develop innovative heterogeneous catalytic technologies to transform lignocellulosic (non-food-based) biomass materials (e.g., trees, switch grass, left over waste in agriculture, etc.) into fuels and chemicals. We focus on several scientific thrusts, including the production of furans from cellulose and hemicellulose, the production of green aromatics, the hydrodeoxygenation of target molecules for the upgrade of bio-oil and sugar derivatives, the pyrolysis of biomass, and the production of electricity. Within these scientific thrusts are cross-cutting efforts on synthesis of hierarchical multiscale materials, in situ characterization, and multiscale modeling. read more about CCEI
Scientific Research Thrusts and Enabling Technologies
Sugars to Furans – Selective transformations of sugars to furans
Biomass Upgrade – Upgrade of intermediates to fuels and chemicals
Green Aromatics – Production of aromatics from furans
Fuel Cells – Molten antimony (Sb) as fuel electrode
Pyrolysis – Pyrolysis leads to bio-oil
Modeling – First-principles multiscale simulations
Materials – Growing portfolio of novel classes of materials