Javier Pérez-Ramírez receives the 2019 Paul H. Emmett Award
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Javier Pérez-Ramírez receives the 2019 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis which recognizes individual contributions in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena.
external pageThe 2019 Paul H. Emmett Award recognizes Javier for significant contributions to the design of catalytic materials and process concepts to solve energy, resource, and environmental challenges of society at large. He has developed catalysts that enable pioneering selective routes for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol and halogen-mediated functionalization of natural gas components, as well as for the conversion of renewables to chemical building blocks. He has also engineered techniques for the nanostructuring of noble metals in the form of defined ensembles or single atoms. This has enabled key sustainability targets, such as the avoidance of harmful modifiers commonly applied to enhance the selectivity of hydrogenations in the fine chemical industry. The thread of his research combines creative discovery with advanced structural and mechanistic understanding, emphasizing the bridge between the molecular level and application at the technical scale.
On the way to practical implementation in collaboration with TOTAL
Javier’s research on CO2 hydrogenation has been conducted in collaboration with Total S.A., the French multinational integrated oil and gas company and is now finding its way towards practical implementation.
"TOTAL have had the pleasure to work with Prof. Pérez-Ramírez for nearly 10 years. In that time, it has been a very fruitful partnership with a number of high impact papers on fundamental insights."David Nevicato, CCUS Research Program Manager at TOTAL
David Nevicato, CCUS Research Program Manager at TOTAL says that the collaborative work with Javier Pérez-Ramírez' group at ETH Zürich on CO2 conversion represents one of the main CO2 conversion projects that TOTAL have in their Climate Strategy portfolio. The strong collaboration has allowed key developments of a novel catalytic system, that has the potential to be implemented on an industrial scale. With this goal in mind, a demonstration unit for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol is foreseen in the coming years.