The Dauenhauer research group focuses on the fundamental reaction engineering technology necessary to produce fuels and chemicals from alternative feedstocks such as shale, natural gas, and lignocellulosic biomass. Renewable carbon sources such as hybrid poplar trees and switchgrass are fundamentally different feedstocks than conventional carbon-sources such as petroleum. Biomass exists as a complex mixture of biopolymers which form a solid and fibrous composite material that is highly oxygenated and overfunctionalized. Conversion to fuels and chemicals requires a significant reduction in species size, reduction in the number of functional groups, and overall reduction in oxidation state. Alternatively, conversion of natural gas (methane) to fuels and chemicals requires the addition of functionality and increase in molecular size. Research focused on the development and utilization of inorganic catalysts for biomass and natural gas transformation will permit the efficient, economical use of non-food-based biomass and domestic natural gas.
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Kinetics and reaction chemistry for slow pyrolysis of enzymatic hydrolysis lignin and organosolv extracted lignin derived from maplewood (with J. Cho, S. Chu, and g. W. Huber), Green Chemistry (2012)
The kinetics and reaction chemistry for the pyrolysis of Maplewood lignin were investigated using both...
Revealing pyrolysis chemistry for biofuels production: Conversion of cellulose to furans and small oxygenates (with M S. Mettler, S. H. Mushrif, A. D. Paulsen, D. G. Vlachos, and A. D. Javadekar), Energy & Environmental Science (2012)
Biomass pyrolysis utilizes high temperatures to produce an economically renewable intermediate (pyrolysis oil) that can...
Aerosol Generation by Reactive Boiling Ejection of Molten Cellulose (with A. R. Teixeira, K. G. Mooney, J. S. Kruger, C. L. Williams, W. J. Suszynski, L. D. Schmidt, and D. P. Schmidt), Energy & Environmental Science (2011)
The generation of primary aerosols from biomass hinders the production of biofuels by pyrolysis, intensifies...
Improved utilization of biomass-derived carbon by millisecond co-processing with hydrogen rich feedstocks (with J. L. Colby, A. Bhan, and L. D. Schmitt), Green Chemistry (2010)
A reactor capable of improving the utilization of biomass-derived carbon during thermochemical conversion to synthesis...
Reactive Boiling of Cellulose for Integrated Catalysis through a Liquid Intermediate (with J. L. Colby, C. M. Balonek, W. J. Wieslaw, and L. D. Schmidt), Green Chemistry (2009)
Advanced biomass processing technology integrating fast pyrolysis and inorganic catalysis requires an improved understanding of...