Dr. Franklin Tao will present his colloquium topic, “Progressive Switch From Petroleum to Methane and Its Challenge” via Zoom. A Zoom room will be set-up in JH 136 for people who want to attend in person. Coffee and cookies will be available before at 3:30pm.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://unl.zoom.us/j/96810389150

Abstract: Petroleum has been the main source of chemical and fuel production for decades. Driven by the diminishing source and request of environmental mitigation, a progressive switch of petroleum to methane has started in the last decade. However, this switch has been challenged by available processes of efficient chemical transformations of methane to value-added chemicals and fuels. Another associated challenge is the management of methane emission due to the more severe green-house effect of methane in contrast to carbon dioxide, a main by-product of the petrochemical industry. To utilize methane with high energy efficiency, chemical transformation at low temperature is requested. The bottleneck of the low-temperature chemical process is the lack of catalysts with high activity and selectivity. In this colloquium, I will brief the switch from petroleum to methane, present the high-temperature and low-temperature transformations of methane, introduce the emission of methane to the ambient environment and discuss the strategies for managing methane emission.