Directory: Faculty

Edward M. Eyring

Edward M. Eyring

PHYSICAL & ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY

Professor

B.A., 1955
Ph.D., 1960, University of Utah
NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Goettingen, 1960

Phone: (801) 581-8658

Office: 2428 HEB-S

Email: eyring@chem.utah.edu

Publications

Activities & Awards

Research Interests

Ted Eyring and his co-workers make and use metal nanoparticles in the 2 nm to about 60 nm diameter range. In one project, these nanoparticles are palladium metal doped into a highly porous cerium oxide/silica aerogel. An aerogel monolith consists of ~99% empty space and is astonishingly lightweight. The doped aerogel is tested in a six channel batch reactor with gas chromatographic (CG) detection of reaction products. The doped aerogel functions as a highly efficient heterogeneous catalyst for the "water-gas-shift" (WGS) reaction:

water-gas-shift reaction

Interest in this long-known reaction arises from its application as a
supplier of very pure hydrogen to fuel cells that someday may routinely power our automobiles. The CO(g) originates in "syngas" derived from bituminous coal or from natural gas. The Eyring group focuses on synthesizing and characterizing better "low-temperature" (T < 250°C) WGS catalysts. The above equilibrium is exothermic as written, so higher yields of H2(g) are obtained at lower temperatures. The advantage of using a highly porous aerogel support for the metal nanoparticles is that reactant and product gases readily enter and leave the metal nanoparticle reaction sites. Experimental tools used to characterize these catalysts include temperature programmed reduction (TPR), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) surface area measurements, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder pattern X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurements, and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements. (These last two experiments are carried out by collaborators at a synchrotron.)

The same experimental tools are used by the Eyring group in the development of heterogeneous catalysts designed to facilitate the Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis of diesel range automotive fuel from syngas.

Another Eyring group collaborative research project involves the complete separation and recovery of low molecular weight gases such as methane and xenon present in trace amounts in air. Metal nanoparticle doped molecular sieves invented by Steven Kuznicki (Alberta Adsorbents, Edmonton) provide the surfaces on which such separations by selective adsorption can be effected. TEM studies of the adsorbing surfaces, and "pressure-swing" GC experiments done at realistic experimental conditions, are being performed in the Eyring group in support of this research effort.

Another project that the Eyring group is working on, in collaboration with Chemical Engineering colleagues, is Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC).  In CLC a fluidized bed fuel reactor and a fluidized bed “air” reactor are operated in a closed loop arrangement.  Air and fuel never come in direct contact with one another.  Instead air oxygen is transferred to a reduced metal or metal oxide in the “air” reactor symbolized by the following stoichiometric equation:

O2  +  2 MexOy–1  ->  2 MexOy

The reaction takes place at a high temperature of 800 to 1000ºC.  The fluidized bed “air” reactor carries the metal oxide (called the “oxygen carrier”) into the fluidized bed fuel reactor into which a fuel such as syngas or powdered coal is fed.  The reaction:

CnHm  +  (2n  +  ½ m)MexOy ->  n CO2  +  0.5m H2O  +  (2n  +  ½ m)MexOy–1

takes place, and the heat normally released by combustion of the fuel is released in this flameless combustion process.  The flue gas emerging from the fuel reactor contains primarily CO2 and steam.  The steam can be removed by condensation, and the CO2 can be sequestered, thereby avoiding its release into the atmosphere.

topSelected Publications