Hilal Ezgi Toraman, Ph.D. to present "Fundamental Understanding of Non-Traditional Feedstock Conversion Processes"

Hilal Ezgi Toraman is an Energy Engineering Candidate who will be presenting "Fundamental Understanding of Non-Traditional Feedstock Conversion Processes"

Abstract: The rapid development of novel processes based on efficient utilization of non-traditional feedstocks such as shale gas, biomass and plastic waste for the production of fuels and chemicals is crucial for a sustainable and independent economy. The scientific advancements strongly depend on the systematic and fundamental understanding of the complex reaction systems, which in turn leads to the commercialization of the processes. This presentation will focus on the two grand challenges in the field of energy and refining: (1) direct conversion of methane, which is the main constituent of shale gas and (2) upgrading of biomass and plastic waste. In the first part of the seminar, I will present results on the direct non-oxidative coupling of methane to olefins and aromatics (NOCM) over isolated iron active centers. NOCM is an emerging process for which the fundamentals of the complex reaction mechanism including both catalytic and gas phase reactions is less understood. First-principles based microkinetic modelling allows to unravel mechanistic insights and the role of the isolated iron active centers. The microkinetic model combined with reactor scale simulations and detailed analysis also provides spectroscopic insights even at high temperatures in addition to providing guidelines for enhanced selectivity towards desired products such as ethylene.
In the second part of the seminar, I will present results on the following aspects of biomass and plastic waste upgrading via fast pyrolysis: (i) thorough understanding of the relationship between biomass composition and pyrolysis oil composition using well-defined feedstocks, i.e. genetically engineered biomass, and (ii) method development for detailed characterization of complex pyrolysis oils through two dimensional gas chromatography. The obtained results based on detailed analysis of the pyrolysis data using statistical techniques elucidate the feedstock-product relations and show that lignin engineering can be a promising strategy to alter the lignin composition of the biomass for the production of high value-added phenolic compounds. The complexity in feedstock composition is reflected in the pyrolysis oil composition which necessitates the development of systematic methodologies for the detailed and accurate compositional characterization of pyrolysis oils. To this end, I will present several cases where the developed characterization methodology based on two dimensional gas chromatography coupled to multiple detectors can be applied in a generic way for pyrolysis oils with different heteroatom functionality.

About: Dr. Hilal Ezgi Toraman is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Dionisios Vlachos’ group at the Delaware Energy Institute, University of Delaware. Her postdoctoral research focuses on experimental and computational investigation of shale gas conversion to fuels and chemicals. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She received her Ph.D. degree in Chemical Engineering from Ghent University, Belgium under the supervision of Prof. Kevin Van Geem and Prof. Guy Marin. Her Ph.D. research was in the field of thermochemical conversion of complex feedstocks, such as biomass and plastic waste. She received several awards including a graduate research fellowship in Belgium, an individual scholarship for her M.Sc. study from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) and a Travel Grant for the 4th North American Symposium on Chemical Reaction Engineering (NASCRE 4).