Education

1. B.S. 2004, Chemical Engineering & Chemistry, University of Wisconsin - Madison
2. Ph.D. 2008, Chemical Engineering, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
3. Industrial, 2008-2009, Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI & Freeport, TX

Research interests

1. Microkinetics and Reactor Design
2. Biomass Conversion and Energy
3. Integrated Pyrolysis and Catalysis
4. Hybrid Biochemical Production

Research

Our ability to provide fuels and chemicals in a sustainable manner for future generations presents the largest global challenge for reaction engineering in the twenty-first century.  The the core of the technical problem are the significant physical differences between the carbon sources of the future such as biomass, natural gas, and heavy oils and our current reduced-carbon feedstocks.  Our goal is to develop integrated catalytic reactor technologies that permit the utilization of new and exotic feedstocks, while simultaneously allowing atomic level control and access to energy.  Achieving this goal will occur with two major areas of research: (1) high temperature integrated pyrolysis and heterogeneous catalysis; and (2) low temperature hybrid catalytic processing. 

Integrated Pyrolysis and Catalysis Biomass, the most concentrated source of renewable carbon, is significantly different than petroleum.  The photosynthetic process only partially reduces atmospheric carbon (CO2) resulting in large biopolymers that are highly functionalized, crystalline solid materials.& nbsp; Accessing the functional groups of biomass requires initial pyrolysis to small, volatile fragments which can interact with catalytic sites.  Direct, ablative contact of biopolymers with high temperature (700-1100 °C) supported metal catalysts has the potential for simultaneously controlling the temperature distribution within the pyrolyzing fragment, adjusting the volatile species size distribution, and controlling the development and characteristics of solid byproducts such as coke or char.  Our research explores the fast (millisecond) chemistry occurring at the interface between solid porous catalysts and organic feedstocks to understand the optimal design with regard to catalyst preparation, surface chemistry, and interfacial mixing phenomena.

Hybrid Catalytic Processing Achieving high selectivity to valuable chemicals from biomass presents the opposite technical challenge than conventional oil and gas feedstocks. Chemical fragments derived from biomass such as sugars (from polysaccharides) and oxygenated aromatics (from lignin) contain too many chemical groups and must be de-functionalized to desired chemicals.  Our research examines the potential for utilizing existing biological technology to convert over-functionalized feedstocks to new intermediates capable of conversion by inorganic heterogeneous catalysts.  The process integration of biological and thermochemical conversion generates the possibility for entirely new routes to existing products, the opportunity to apply new materials, and the potential for alternative reactor designs.

Research articles

1. DAUENHAUER, P.J., COLBY, J.L., BALONEK, C.M., SUSZYNSK I, W.J., SCHMIDT, L.D. 2009 Reactive boiling of cellulose for integrated catalysis through an intermediate liquid. Accepted in Green Chemistry.
2. COLBY, J.L., DAUENHAUER, P.J., MICHAEL, B.C., BHAN, A., & SCHMIDT, L.D. 2009 Carbon negative reforming of biomass for renewable fuels. Submitted.
3. COLBY, J.L., DAUENHAUER, P.J., SCHMIDT, L.D. 2008 Millisecond autothermal steam reforming of cellulose for synthetic biofuels by reactive flash volatilization. Green Chemistry 10, 773-783.
4. RENNARD, D.C., DAUENHAUER, P.J. , TUPY, S.A., SCHMIDT, L.D. 2008 Autothermal catalytic partial oxidation of bio-oil functional groups: esters and acids. Energy & Fuels 22, 1318-1327.
5. SCHMIDT, L.D., DAUENHAUER, P.J. 2007 Hybrid routes to biofuels. Nature 447, 914-915.
6. DAUENHAUER, P.J., DREYER, B.J., SCHMIDT, L.D. 2007 Millisecond reforming of solid biomass for sustainable fuels. Angewandte Chemie International Edition 46, 5864-5867.
7. SALGE, J.R., DREYER, B.J., DAUENHAUER, P.J., SCHMIDT, L.D. 2006 Renwable hydrogen from nonvolatile fuels by reactive flash volatilization. Science 314, 801-804.
8. DAUENHAUER, P.J., SALGE, J.R., SCHMIDT, L.D. 2006 Renewabl e hydrogen by autothermal steam reforming of volatile carbohydrates. J. Cat. 244, 238-247.