Catalysts for sustainable development
In his role as Associate professor in Multiphasic Catalysis and Reactions, Jimmy Faria leads a variety of projects that involve catalysts for sustainable solutions in the fields of plastic pollution, energy storage, and harmful emissions.
Jimmy Faria’s work revolves around catalysts. ‘Our research projects are very different, but they all involve catalysts and are aimed at sustainable solutions for emission, pollution, and energy storage,’ he says. ‘Simply put, a catalyst reduces the energy barriers in a chemical process, by lowering the reaction temperature for example. Designing novel catalysts involves understanding how molecules bind to active sites, so we can develop the formulation that can bind the reactants with enough strength for the reaction to take place selectively.’
Control of nitrogen oxides pollutants, such as nitrate and nitrite, is one of the issues that Faria tries to address. ‘When settled in surface water, nitrogen oxides stimulate algae growth and prevent oxygen to diffuse into water, causing water animals to suffocate,’ Faria explains. ‘With a catalyst we can reverse these harmful effects by converting nitrogen oxides into nitrogen.’
A very different application of catalysts lies in energy storage. Faria: ‘For optimal use of wind and solar energy, we need proper long-term energy storage and the ability to transport this energy across the globe as we do with fossil fuels. This, unfortunately, cannot be provided by commercial batteries. We have designed a process to convert nitrogen and hydrogen into green ammonia that can easily be stored and transported. This conversion as well as the reverse process to get the energy out from ammonia again involves catalysts.’
Faria received Vidi funding for his project FoCUS (Foams for Catalytic Upcycling of Plastics), which aims at developing new catalytic materials and processes to convert plastic waste into added value chemicals. ‘In all our research projects, we always keep the application in mind, so for the FoCUS project we specifically aim at bringing our concepts into the world,’ he says. ‘This calls for a certain mindset. In all of our research projects, we have a company involved in some way and our PhD students take part in an entrepreneurial research program offered by Novel-T. We challenge them to be critical towards their own work and give them tools for rapid implementation of their ideas. I aim to move our work from the lab to a prototype as quickly as possible.’
Education
Faria is chair of the Program Committee for Chemical Engineering and teaches several courses in both the Bachelor and the Master program. He thoroughly enjoys the interaction with students. ‘I like sharing my knowledge in lectures, but I absolutely love the tutorial lessons,’ he says. ‘Often, the students are very motivated. When they are struggling with a complex problem, I do my best to explain things, and then there is that sudden click when they get it. That moment is what I treasure the most!’
Having a foreign background himself, Faria is also a mentor for first year students from abroad. ‘This has many social aspects,’ he points out. ‘Our international students have a very diverse background. I try to help them integrate in the Dutch system and encourage them to be dynamic and outspoken, and engage in social activities.’
About Jimmy Faria Albanese
At the University of Oklahoma (USA), Faria did a PhD project on converting biomass into renewable fuel, leading to publications in Science and the start of a new research center based on that idea. After finishing his PhD, Faria joined the research department of Abengoa in Spain, where he worked in different roles for about five years, where he gained a lot of experience on technology implementation. Faria moved to Twente for a tenure track position and is now an associate professor, leading his own research team on Multiphasic Catalysis and Reactions within the Catalytic Processes and Materials group at the Faculty of Science and Technology. In 2022 he received a Vidi grant for his research project FoCUs.
Press Photos
These press photos can be used with no copyright restrictions, please include the name of the photographer, Fokke Eenhoorn.