Rochester Reporter

Simona Liguori, assistant professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering at Clarkson University, has been awarded $50,000 from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Climate Works Foundation for her project aimed at reducing CO2 emissions by converting it into valuable products.

The award is presented to 19 researchers throughout North America and Canada in the third year of the Scialog: Negative Emissions Science Initiative, which collects  multidisciplinary teams to advance fundamental science in the design of novel approaches for rapidly removing and utilizing or sequestering greenhouse gasses. 

Liguori’s project aims to convert waste biogas into methanol—one of the most important materials in chemical synthesis—via negative Carbon Dioxide emission technologies. According to Liguori, a triple-intensified membrane reactor is designed to enable a negative-carbon footprint. 

“The underlying vision and approach for using double membranes while reactions take place is to relax the thermodynamic constraints that both biogas reaction and methanol synthesis have,” she said. “This intensification will maximize the synergistic effects between partial processes and effectiveness of intermolecular events to bring the process closer to its quantum-leap goals for greener chemical engineering.”

Liguori’s project not only seeks to avoid CO2 emissions by converting the waste biogas into methanol, but also to intensify the process by requiring less energy and improving  the efficiency.

Simona Liguori is a faculty affiliate at Clarkson University’s Institute for a Sustainable Environment. She received her PhD and MS degrees for Chemical Engineering in Italy where she attended the University of Calabria. She did research at the Institute on Membrane Technology as a postdoc researcher. She has worked at several universities, passing on her knowledge in chemical and biological engineering. She was recently also granted the Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Women’s Young Investigator Fellowship and Carbon Footprint Challenge Award, and was named a Scialog Fellow for Negative Emissions Science.

Liguori’s research focuses on the development of inorganic membranes and membrane reactors, non-equilibrium reactions, gas separation, and negative emission technologies. She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers, as well as many publications, book chapters, and conference proceedings. She also currently holds two US patents.

To read more about the RCSA Award, click here.

As a private, national research university, Clarkson is a leader in technological education and sustainable economic development through teaching, scholarship, research and innovation. We ignite personal connections across academic fields and industries to create the entrepreneurial mindset, knowledge and intellectual curiosity needed to innovate world-relevant solutions and cultivate the leaders of tomorrow. With its main campus located in Potsdam, N.Y., and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region, Beacon, N.Y., and New York City, Clarkson educates 4,600+ students across 95 rigorous programs of study in engineering, business, the arts, education, sciences and health professions. Our alumni earn salaries that are among the top 2.5% in the nation and realize accelerated career growth. One in five already leads as a CEO, senior executive or owner of a company. To learn more about Clarkson University, go to www.clarkson.edu.

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Original source can be found here.