The Fall 2021 MatSE 590 for graduate students consists of an exciting and jam-packed schedule. MATSE 590 is a colloquium (1-3 credits) consist of a series of individual lectures by faculty, students, or outside speakers.
Graduate students will receive a weekly email with information via @psu.edu email. Graduate students are required to attend all 590 Seminars. If you have any questions, please email Hayley Barnes at hjc24@psu.edu.
*Due to the ongoing Covid Pandemic this program is being offered virtually through Zoom. Please reference the weekly email from Hayley Barnes (hjc24@psu.edu) for Zoom link.
December 7, 2021
“Diminishing the Gigaton Carbon Giant through Hybrid Material Strategies for Capture, Conversion and Renewable Energy Alternatives”
Michelle K. Kidder, PhD., Research Staff Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Abstract
Energy generated from fossil fuels dominate the global use portfolio which now has reached an all-time high emission of approximately 40 GtCO2. Undoubtedly this has had consequential impacts on our climate and environment, and sadly emissions are expected to rise. This has brought the urgent need to remove carbon from the atmosphere to reverse the rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations with effective carbon negative technologies as well as look to alternatives for energy, fuels and chemical resources. However, many strategies to enhance product selectivity from resources such as biomass, lignin or carbon dioxide have been met with challenges with standalone materials and lack the ability to undergo process implementation. Hence, the development of hybrid materials that employ tunable porous structures and functionality have shown to impact kinetics, selectivity, and thermodynamics due to confinement affects. Discussion of porous materials for selective product distribution on the pyrolytic decomposition of lignin model compounds followed by the demonstration of hybrid polymer materials for both (1) direct air capture (DAC) and (2) utilization processes will be presented.
Biographical Information
Dr. Michelle Kidder is a Research Staff Scientist, an ORNL Program Manager for Fossil Energy Carbon Management in Utilization, and Scientific Lead for Net Zero Carbon strategies in the Energy Science and Technology Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Her research focuses on novel material development and processes for alternative energy production from renewable energy resources. Here, she works to establish new approaches that elucidate underlying reaction mechanisms to further design and control material properties for optimal performance and scale-up. Her leading efforts have helped to describe the impacts of complex interfacial chemistries in carbon capture, and thermal and catalytic conversions of small molecules such as carbon dioxide, up to larger molecules found in biomass and lignin, to help improve technologies and accelerate the deployment of sustainable chemicals and fuels. Dr. Kidder has over 70 journal publications, a book and 5 patents. She has served as Chair of the National American Chemical Society Energy and Fuels Division and in 2018 was named an American Chemical Society Fellow. In 2019 she was awarded the U.S. Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) in Research. She received her BS in Chemistry from the State University of New York at Brockport and her PhD in Physical Organic Chemistry from South Dakota State University.
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