Omar Abdelrahman

Assistant Professor

112F Goessmann Laboratory

Chemical Engineering Department
University of Massachusetts Amherst
686 N. Pleasant Street
Amherst, MA 01003-9303

abdel@umass.edu

413.545.0096

413.545.1647 (fax)

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Education

Post-Doc, University of Minnesota, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, 2018
Ph.D. Syracuse University, Chemical Engineering, 2016
B.Sc. American University of Sharjah, Chemical Engineering, 2011

Research

Catalysis
Biomass upgrading
CO2 conversion
Solid base design
Microkinetic modelling

Satisfying the demand for fuels and chemicals via the efficient and sustainable utilization of our carbon resources is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. Catalysis will play a central role in satisfying these vital needs by rendering existing processes more efficient as well as finding novel solutions to satisfy our chemical and energy needs.

Research in our group focuses on developing fundamental understandings relevant to catalytic surfaces and its application to sustainable technologies, facilitating the utilization of existing and non-conventional carbon resources. Interests in the group branch into three main focuses on catalyst discovery, characterization and kinetic modelling. Our catalyst discovery efforts are currently focused on the design of active and stable solid base catalysts, as well as coupling them with other catalytic functionalities (metal, acid) to create new and exciting bifunctional materials. Crucial to attaining this goal is the characterization of the active catalytic site, we therefore also seek to develop characterization tools that can provide an intimate understanding of the catalytic materials we create. Ultimately, newly designed catalysts are applied to relevant chemistries and better understood through kinetic studies, applying microkinetic modelling to unravel energetic landscapes on a catalyst’s surface.

Publications

Publications

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N8sr9mAAAAAJ&hl

O. A. Abdelrahman, K. P. Vinter, L. Ren, D. Xu, R. J. Gorte, M. Tsapatsis and P. J. Dauenhauer, Simple Quantification of Zeolite Acid Site Density by Reactive Gas Chromatography, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2017, 7, 3831-3841. (link)
O. A. Abdelrahman, D. S. Park, K. P. Vinter, C. S. Spanjers, L. Ren, H. J. Cho, D. G. Vlachos, W. Fan, M. Tsapatsis and P. J. Dauenhauer, Biomass-Derived Butadiene by Dehydra-Decyclization of Tetrahydrofuran, ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng., 2017, 5 (5), 3732-3736. (link)
O. A. Abdelrahman, D. S. Park, K. P. Vinter, C. S. Spanjers, L. Ren, H. J. Cho, K. Zhang, W. Fan, M. Tsapatsis and P. J. Dauenhauer, Renewable Isoprene by Sequential Hydrogenation of Itaconic Acid and Dehydra-Decyclization of 3-Methyl-Tetrahydrofuran, ACS Catal., 2017, 7 (2), 1428-1431. (link)
O. A. Abdelrahman, A. Heyden and J. Q. Bond, Microkinetic analysis of C3 – C5 ketone hydrogenation over supported Ru catalysts, J. Catal., 2017, 348, 59-74. (link)
O. A. Abdelrahman, H. Y. Luo, A. Heyden, Y. Román-Leshkov and J. Q. Bond, Towards rational design of stable supported metal catalysts for aqueous-phase processing: Insights from the hydrogenation of levulinic acid, J. Catal., 2015, 329, 10–21. (link)
O. A. Abdelrahman, A. Heyden and J. Q. Bond, Analysis of kinetics and reaction pathways in the aqueous-phase hydrogenation of levulinic acid to form γ-valerolactone over Ru/C, ACS Catal., 2014, 4, 1171–1181. (link)
A.B. Kellicutt, R. Salary, O.A. Abdelrahman and J.Q. Bond, An examination of the intrinsic activity and stability of various solid acids during the catalytic decarboxylation of γ-Valerolactone, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2014, 4, 2267-2279. (link)

Honors

Best Paper in Session, AICHE Annual Fall Meeting, Minneapolis (2017)

All-University Doctoral Prize, Syracuse University (2017)

Outstanding Achievement Award in Graduate Study, Syracuse University (2017)

Best Paper in Session, AICHE Annual Fall Meeting, San Francisco (2016)

Kokes Award, North American Catalysis Society, Pittsburgh (2015)

Grand Prize Winner of Nunan Research Day, Syracuse University (2014)

AICHE Graduate Student Travel Award, Catalysis and Reaction Engineering Division (2014)

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