Carsten Sievers
Assistant Professor
Contact Information
Building: Ford ES&T
Office:
2218
Phone: 404.385.7685
Fax: 404.894.2866
email
Mailing Address
Georgia Institute of Technology
School of Chemical &
Biomolecular Engineering
311 Ferst Drive, N.W.
Atlanta, GA 30332-0100
Links
Carsten Sievers
Education
Diploma, Chemistry, 2003, Technical University of Munich, Germany
Dr. rer. nat. (DSc), 2006 Technical University of Munich, Germany
Research Interests
Dr. Sievers’ research interests are in heterogeneous catalysis, reactor design, applied spectroscopy, and characterization and synthesis of solid materials. Combining these interests he seeks to develop processes for the production of fuels and chemicals. His research program combines fundamental and applied research.
In fundamental studies, a suite of analytical and spectroscopic techniques (e.g. IR, NMR) is used to gain knowledge on structure-reactivity relationships of heterogeneous catalysts. Moreover, surface reactions are studied on a molecular level so that mechanisms and reaction pathways can be derived. Information obtained from these studies provides the foundation for intelligent catalyst design.
Applied studies focus specific catalytic processes. For these projects, continuously operated flow reactor systems are designed. Different catalysts are tested for reactivity, selectivity and stability and the influence of the operating conditions is investigated. Catalyst deactivation is studied in detail to develop suitable regeneration methods or to avoid deactivation entirely by improved catalyst design.
An important goal of Dr. Sievers’ research is to enable technology for utilization of alternative resources in order to reduce the current dependence of oil. Among these biomass is a particularly promising candidate because it is renewable and can be produced CO2 neutral. Additional efforts are directed towards converting CO2 into value-added products.
Dr. Sievers has contributed to 20 peer reviewed publications on heterogeneous catalysis in petroleum refining (isobutane/2-butene alkylation, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrotreating), alkane activation, supported ionic liquid as catalysts for fine chemical synthesis, and biomass processing.