Achieving better chemistry faster through thermoelectric promotion of catalysis

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This consortium combines the original technology inventor in Cranfield University, with a pre-pilot reactor developer (HEL Ltd) and a sustainable and renewable process design/assessment specialist (Exergy Ltd) to explore a novel, new and emerging technology, called thermoelectric promotion of catalysis (TEPOC). In essence, TEPOC uses thermoelectric materials to transform a temperature gradient into a Seebeck voltage, which increases the electrochemical energy of the electrons in the catalyst particles. This improves the catalytic activity by several tens to several thousands of times. The generic nature of the mechanism suggests that TEPOC can be applied to many catalytic chemical processes to: reduce the reaction temperature, increase the reaction speed, improve the desired selectivity. The use of the thermoelectric effect to boost catalyst performance has potentially wide ranging benefits for the chemical industry in terms of both efficiency savings and enabling the use of chemical syntheses which have not previously been viable.