1. 1 NSF Directorate for Engineering | Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Chemical, Biochemical, and Biotechnology Systems Cluster Catalysis and Biocatalysis Program Director - George Antos - gantos @ nsf.gov Broad Research Focus Areas  Fundamental Science, Phenomena & Materials of  Heterogeneous/Homogeneous Catalysis  Biocatalysis  Electrocatalysis  Process Conversion Technologies to Produce Fuels, Chemicals, Materials  Biorenewable Conversion

2. FY 2009 Proposals & Awards 2 Description  Total Proposals Received (excluding HyBi)  Unsolicited Awards  HyBi EFRI Awards  CAREER (12 Proposals)  EaGER & GOALI  Workshops / Conferences  Supplements (REU, etc.) # of Awards 155 20 8 3 0 3 17

3. 3 Redesigning Cr/SiO 2 polymerization catalysts CTS-0500489 Catalytic Kinetics and Mechanisms Susannah Scott - UC Santa Barbara DFT-calculated structures Cr O SiSi simulated XANESexperimental XANES Wenbin Lin - UNC at Chapel Hill Engineerable, uniform asymmetric catalysts based on metal-organic frameworks 1.8 nm (R)-1 CHE-0512495

4. 4 Nano Scale Characterization Renu Sharma Arizona State University CTS-0508434 and 0625340 Controlled growth of catalyst particles for CNT synthesis 4 nm Peter A. Crozier, Renu Sharma & Jim Adams Arizona State University ActiveInactive CTS-0306688 Activity variations in individual nanoparticles

5. 5 Biocatalysis Daniela Mainardi Louisiana Tech University Representation of methanol oxidation by bacteria Methanol Dehydrogenase (MDH) in fuel cell anode. Vadim Guliants University of Cincinnati Effects of surface curvature and confined nanoscale environment on biocatalytic activity CTS-0449046 CTS - 0403897 ANODE e- Methanol Products e- Bacterial Methanol Dehydrogenase/ Mediator

6. Computational Catalysis/Fuel Cells CAREER: Simulation of Metal Nanoparticle Interactions with Doped Carbon Supports C. Heath Turner - University of Alabama CBET-0747690 Development of a hands-on science exhibit at the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama: “Fuel Cells and Fuel Cell Catalysis” [ Thousands of K-12 student visitors every month !!! ] 6

7. Novel Materials / Syntheses C. Buddie Mullins University of Texas at Austin Thin films of porous titania nanocolumns Thin films of porous titania nanocolumns TEM of single column from film showing porosity Boris Yakobson William Marsh Rice University Chiral symmetry, or helicity, defines all physical properties and controls the rate of self-assembly of carbon nanotubes. CBET-0731246 7 CBET-0553243

8. 8 Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation + Biomass conversion to fuels & chemicals + Inorganic and Biocatalysis 8

9. Biofuel Production Alternatives gasification to “syngas” (CO + H 2 ) pyrolysis, fast or slow liquid phase processing fermentation transesterfication Jet Fuel Diesel Gasoline EthanolForestwaste Corn stover Switch-grass Corn grain SugarcaneAlga Soybeans sugar Sugar/StarchLipidslignocellulose starch saccharification gases bio-oil Fisher-Tropsch methanol catalytic routes biological routes dissolution lignin thermal routes Heat/Power butanol Biodiesel hydrotreating synthetic biology 9

10. 12 14 1618 ethanedial acetic acid propanoic acid furfural Pl: M.Tsapatsis Co-PIs: A. Bhan, C. Floudas, L. Schmidt, D. Vlachos EFRI-HyBi : Conversion of Biomass to Fuels using Molecular Sieve Catalysts and Millisecond Contact Time Reactors Pt/Rh Mesoporous zeolite O 2 + biomass synthetic fuel C3-C6 sugars & C9-C10 lignin monomers biomassanaerobicdigestion methane ethanol Emerging interdisciplinary frontiers in heterogeneous catalysis, reaction engineering, materials design, systems integration, and energy are combined to develop a highly integrated, millisecond contact time reactor for the production of hydrocarbons from biomass feedstocks by rapidly and selectively reacting them to eliminate solid carbon formation and other undesired reactions. 10 Minnesota, Delaware, and Princeton Universities

11. PI: P. Savage CoPIs: G. Keoleian, Z. Lin, S. Linic, A. Matzger The Science and Engineering of Microalgae Hydrothermal Processing OIL Objective 1: Kinetics, Products, Pathways, & Mechanisms Hydrothermal Liquefaction Biomass Growth Microalgae Growth aqueous by-product hydrocarbons bio-solids waste CO 2 waste H 2 O Objective 3: Microbial Routes for Converting Byproducts into Additional Biomass Objective 4: Systems Perspective: Life-Cycle Assessment & Process Design Cartoon-level Simplified Process Overview for Algae Hydrothermal Liquefaction Hydrothermal Catalytic Upgrading bio-oil components Objective 2: Catalytic Science & Technology for Hydrothermal Upgrading additional wet biomass 11 University of Michigan

12. EFRI-HyBi: PI- B. Peyton CoPIs: R. Carlson, M. Smooke, G. Strobel, S. Strobel Fungal Processes for Direct Bioconversion of Cellulose to Hydrocarbons Task 1. Molecular Basis of Direct Biosynthetic Hydrocarbon Production – Genome annotation. Task 2. Detailed Metabolic Flux Analysis Modeling - Elementary mode and metabolic flux analysis to map experimentally measured myco-diesel fluxes onto intracellular reactions. Task 3. Kinetic Parameters to Optimize Fungal Growth and Hydrocarbon Production – Fermentation experiments to quantitatively describe key metabolic rates and yields for scale-up. Task 4. Hydrocarbon Composition Analysis and Fuel Combustion Properties - Detailed model of myco-diesel flame structures and combustion testing for fuel. Gliocladium roseum Project Vision - Develop fundamental engineering bioprocess knowledge for direct conversion of waste cellulose to produce a range of usable fuel hydrocarbons Ax=b Combustion tests and modeling (Task 4) provides feedback to optimize metabolic engineering and bioreactor growth efforts (Tasks 2 and 3) A collaboration of Montana State Univ and Yale University 12

13. 13 Next Opportunities for Catalysis & Biocatalysis  Catalysis Science, especially utilizing biomass-derived feedstocks  Fuels  Chemicals  Materials  Photo- and Electro-chemical Catalysis Science  Materials  Fuel Cells  C 1 Chemistry and Catalysis Science  Energy Storage  Fuel Interconversion