Troy Christiansen
MLEF student Troy Christiansen from Rowan University. Troy's project at NETL in Morgantown, W.Va focuses on natural gas and natural gas liquids, which are important chemical commodities used in the United States for the manufacturing of a wide variety of products. The conversion reactions can be performed with or without oxygen over different types of catalysts, but can become complicated by formation of carbon over the catalyst or the over oxidation of the hydrocarbons to combustion products. A potential solution to avoiding these issues is the application of microwave energy which provides advantages of conducting the reactions at lower temperatures which may eliminate the formation of carbon, less energy consumption, and improved selectivity to the desired product. Work for this project will include a literature review to determine potential formulation that will react under MW-enhanced conditions, synthesizing the catalysts, characterizing their chemical and physical properties using equipment like XRD, Raman, SEM, and then testing under relevant reaction conditions in our MW reactor systems. Troy's mentor is Daniel Haynes.
Troy Christiansen
MLEF student Troy Christiansen from Rowan University. Troy's project at NETL in Morgantown, W.Va focuses on natural gas and natural gas liquids, which are important chemical commodities used in the United States for the manufacturing of a wide variety of products. The conversion reactions can be performed with or without oxygen over different types of catalysts, but can become complicated by formation of carbon over the catalyst or the over oxidation of the hydrocarbons to combustion products. A potential solution to avoiding these issues is the application of microwave energy which provides advantages of conducting the reactions at lower temperatures which may eliminate the formation of carbon, less energy consumption, and improved selectivity to the desired product. Work for this project will include a literature review to determine potential formulation that will react under MW-enhanced conditions, synthesizing the catalysts, characterizing their chemical and physical properties using equipment like XRD, Raman, SEM, and then testing under relevant reaction conditions in our MW reactor systems. Troy's mentor is Daniel Haynes.