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Chemical manufacturing is energy-intensive. Producing fertilizers, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals often requires high temperatures, high pressures, and significant energy input. Catalysis offers a pathway to perform these same transformations more efficiently, with faster reaction rates, lower energy requirements, and reduced waste generation. For an industry that consumes roughly 10% of total global energy, improvements in catalytic efficiency translate directly into substantial energy and cost savings.

Catalysis also enables entirely new approaches to chemical production. Rather than relying solely on thermal energy and traditional chemical reagents, catalytic processes can harness clean electricity or light to drive reactions. This opens up possibilities for producing valuable chemicals and fuels using electricity from solar or wind sources rather than fossil fuel inputs. Teams within RASEI are investigating catalytic transformations that can replace existing energy-intensive processes with more efficient alternatives, working across chemical catalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis.

Electrocatalysis uses electricity to drive chemical reactions, replacing traditional thermal processes and chemical reagents. This significantly reduces chemical waste while enabling new reaction pathways. By connecting to the electrical grid, electrocatalytic systems can operate when clean electricity is abundant and inexpensive, providing flexibility that traditional chemical plants lack.

Photocatalysis harnesses light energy directly to drive chemical transformations using materials that absorb sunlight and use that energy to break or make chemical bonds. This approach enables reactions without external heating or electrical input.

Chemical catalysis focuses on developing new catalyst materials and reaction mechanisms that reduce energy barriers for important chemical transformations. This work complements RASEI's bio-catalysis efforts, providing multiple pathways, including biological, chemical, electrical, and light-driven, to make chemical manufacturing more energy-efficient and cost-effective.

Research efforts span from fundamental studies of catalyst behavior at the molecular level to developing integrated systems designed for potential industrial deployment. By working at laboratory scale with industrial applications in mind, RASEI teams aim to develop catalytic technologies that can be scaled up to transform how chemicals are produced.