Direct Natural Gas Conversion to Value-Added Chemicals

Jianli Hu

Dr. Jianli Hu is a Chair Professor and the Director of Shale Gas Center at West Virginia University. He leads an interdisciplinary faculty team carrying out cutting edge research in natural gas conversion as well as renewable energy utilization. He has demonstrated strong leadership in partnering with U.S. national laboratories and industrial companies to undertake a number of research projects funded by U.S. federal agencies. These research projects span across the fields of reaction engineering, surface chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, plasma and microwave-enhanced catalytic reactions. Specifically, his research group at WVU is focused on microwave catalysis approaches to produce ammonia from renewable power under low pressure and temperature, chemicals and carbon nanomaterials from natural gas.

Before joining West Virginia University, Dr. Hu worked as a research leader at Koch Industries, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and BP Oil. While working in industry, Dr. Hu led efforts in developing technologies for petroleum refineries and future biorefineries using biomass as a feedstock. The efforts had led to a number of acquisitions that facilitated technology commercialization. He has been granted 31 U.S. patents and published more than 150 journal articles, conference proceedings, technical reports and book chapters. Dr. Hu has been serving as an editor and a guest-editor for a number of peer-reviewed technical journals and a book. He has been serving in a number of industrial advisory boards including AIChE RAPID focus area lead. He has been chairing for "Advanced Fossil Energy Utilization" in AIChE national meetings.

At Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Dr. Hu was among the key contributors in developing microchannel catalytic reactor technology which led to NASA Technology Brief Awards. Dr. Hu received his B.S. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Tsinghua University, China and did his postdoctoral training at University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Dushyant Shekhawat

Dr. Dushyant Shekhawat is serving as a team supervisor for Reaction Engineering team at National Energy Technology (NETL), U.S. Department of Energy, Morgantown, USA. Dr. Shekhawat's research interests include: fuel processing for fuel cell applications, reaction engineering, surface chemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, energy, fuel cell, plasma and microwave-assisted catalytic reactions, and plasma chemistry. Currently, his team at NETL is leading efforts in developing microwave-assisted technologies and approaches to produce value-added fuels and chemicals from natural gas, higher hydrocarbon fuels, and coal. Dr. Shekhawat was among the key contributors to pyrochlore-based reforming catalyst, which was licensed to a spin-off company, Pyrochem Catalyst Company. He is a co-recipient of the Federal Laboratory Consortium 2011 Mid-Atlantic Regional Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer "Novel Pyrochlore Catalysts for Hydrocarbon Reforming". He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal publications, conference proceedings, and reports, seven book chapters, three books, and 15 patents (disclosed or full). Dr. Shekhawat has been serving as an associate editor of Catalysis book series published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Dr. Shekhawat has also served as a guest-editor for the special issues (sections) of Catalysis Today, Fuel, Energy & Fuels, and International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. He has been serving as a program chair for a topical & "Advanced Fossil Energy Utilization" in AIChE national meetings for last thirteen years. Under the same topical, he has organized multiple sessions of fuel processing for hydrogen production and value-added chemicals from natural gas. He is a registered Professional Engineer (PE) in West Virginia and also serves in the NCEES's PE Chemical Engineering Examination Development committee. Dr. Shekhawat received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities and his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Michigan State University in East Lansing.