(302) 831-4863 werrell@udel.edu

Theodore Krause is a Chemical Engineer and Theme Leader for the Catalysis and Energy Conversion Group in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering (CSE) Division at Argonne with 30 years of experience. As theme leader, he manages R&D activities in heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, biofuels production, methane/natural gas conversion to liquid fuels, hydrogen production, fuel cells materials development and CSE’s high-throughput experimentation laboratory. He currently serves as the Laboratory Program Manager to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Fuel Cell Technologies Office. He served as the Laboratory Program Manager to the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative from 2008-2009. His areas of research and expertise include catalyst and catalytic process development for converting biomass or natural gas to liquid fuels and/or value-added chemicals, reforming of gasoline, diesel, or JP-8 to produce hydrogen for use with fuel cell systems, and materials development for gas cleanup. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware.

ABSTRACT for 2016 Materials Characterization Workshop at UD:

Accelerating Material Development for Catalysis and Fuel Cells
Using X-ray Characterization Techniques

Argonne National Laboratory is the home of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), a Department of Energy national user facility, which provides ultra-bright, high-energy storage ring-generated X-ray beams allowing scientists to pursue new knowledge about the structure and function of materials in nearly all scientific disciplines. Catalysis and fuel cells are two major R&D programs at Argonne that utilize the APS. We employ a wide array of X-ray characterization techniques such as X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) and grazing incidence small angle X-ray scattering (GISAXS) to better understand the chemical and physical properties that influence catalyst performance in terms of activity, selectivity and durability. We conduct two types of experiments ─ ex situ studies, where we characterize material samples either as synthesized or after exposure to reaction conditions, and in situ or operando studies, where we characterize the working catalyst under reaction conditions. This presentation will provide an overview of how we employ these various techniques to accelerate the development of catalysts for reactions such as propane dehydrogenation, syn gas conversion, and the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction.