I-Corps: Innovation Corps Teams Program Catalysts for aromatic alkylation

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The project involves the commercialization of a technological breakthrough in the field of zeolites. Delaminated zeolites developed in the proposed work at UC-Berkeley provide a new technology platform that is potentially disruptive to conventional zeolite catalysts used in alkylation reactions. Delaminated zeolites are a new class of materials that are formed via exfoliation of conventional zeolites. This new class of materials has been demonstrated to be catalytically more active than their three dimensional counterparts. The goal of this project is to commercialize delaminated zeolites as catalysts for alkylation of aromatics. The proposed delaminated zeolite catalysts have been shown to be up to four times more active for aromatic alkylation when compared with conventional non-delaminated catalysts, and up to twice as active when compared with other industrial catalysts such as MCM-22. The improvement of catalyst performance when using the proposed delaminated zeolotic materials is projected to reduce energy consumption and, therefore, reduce costs of molecular precursors, such as ethylbenzene, which is used for synthesizing polymers.