The Catalyst Review May 2024 - 16

Movers & Shakers
Professor Karen Wilson
Interim Director of the Centre for Catalysis and Clean Energy (CCCE) at Griffith University, Australia
Professor Wilson received her B.A. (chemistry) and Ph.D. (heterogeneous catalysis and surface science)
from the University of Cambridge. Throughout her career, she has held a series of prestigious academic
positions at the University of York, Cardiff University, RMIT University, and served as Director of Research
at the European Bioenergy Research Institute at Aston University. Most recently, Karen serves as Professor
of Catalysts at Griffith University where she currently co-directs the CCCE - a strategic research centre for
innovation in catalysis, green chemistry and energy materials. She also co-directs the Surfaces Materials &
Catalysis Group (SMAC) with Professor Adam Lee (also at the CCCE), which targets the discovery of new
chemical routes to bio-derived products and the rational design of nanoengineered materials. Karen has
a passion for knowledge transfer and capacity building. She held a Royal Society Industry Fellowship in
collaboration with Johnson Matthey and directed the Global Biorefining, Bioenergy, and Biofuels Network.
Karen is an Associate Editor of Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Energy & Environmental Materials, an Editorial Board member of Energy &
Environmental Science journals, and theme leader for the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Green Electrochemical
Transformation of Carbon Dioxide. She can be reached at karen.wilson6@griffith.edu.au and on X @k.wilson1971.
The Catalyst Review asked Professor Wilson to discuss the newest/most promising process
development efforts currently underway in her laboratory.
CCCE research aligns with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, notably climate change, clean energy and water, and waste
resource utilization. Biomass, derived from non-food sources of lignocellulose, sugars, and oils, is the only source of low-cost sustainable
carbon for hard-to-abate fuels for aviation or marine applications and organic synthesis. Valorising lignocellulosic biomass requires the
transformation of polar feedstocks under mild conditions in water, a contrast to the high-temperature technologies used to transform
non-polar fossil feedstocks.
Producing 'platform chemicals' from lignocellulose requires a cascade of chemical reactions, often driven by different catalytic active
sites. New multifunctional catalysts, e.g., tunable acidity and/or basicity and hydrothermal stability, are sought to promote selective
deoxygenation. 'One-pot' chemical cascades offer greener processes by reducing unit operations. Although such one-pot cascades
are advantageous regarding process efficiency and waste minimization, their design and synthesis remains challenging, particularly
controlling the sequence in which reactants and intermediates encounter active sites and preventing antagonistic interactions between
active sites.
The SMAC group has invented a new class of catalyst (termed 'spatially orthogonal') that permits compartmentalization of e.g. inorganic
acid and base active sites within different but interconnected pore networks within three-dimensional porous architectures. Spatially
orthogonal catalysts are a disruptive technology for the energy-efficient production of biodiesel from low-grade waste bio-oils that
exploit the phenomenon of substrate channeling, ubiquitous in biology. The product of a reaction at one location in a porous catalyst
particle becomes the reactant for a subsequent transformation at another location within the particle, allowing precise control over
reaction sequences.
Chemical cascades can also be achieved through flow chemistry. The CCCE applies continuous flow reactors for biomass conversion
over contiguous beds of different catalysts; complete conversion of a feedstock into a reactive intermediate occurs over a first catalyst,
which then forms the desired product over a second catalyst. This strategy was demonstrated for the continuous production of
γ-valerolactone (a valuable fuel additive and solvent) by the cascade esterification and transfer hydrogenation of levulinic acid (from
holocellulose).
The CCCE is now focused on a major grant application to the Australian government for a $35M Centre of Excellence in Catalysing
Sustainable Chemical Manufacturing. If successful, this Centre of Excellence will harness scientific breakthroughs in catalysis to capitalize
on abundant Australian waste resources and establish a decentralized chemical industry enabled by compact, modular chemical
reactors. Technological advances will underpin the sustainable chemical manufacturing necessary to transition Australia and the world,
from a fossil-based economy to a circular one.
Coming Soon - Topics Include:
* Methanol Synthesis Catalyst Developments
* Polyolefins Technology Transfer Market
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The Catalyst Review
May 2024

The Catalyst Review May 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Catalyst Review May 2024