Departments Seminar Program (Webinars) - Dr. Δρ. Pavlos Pandis (National Technical University of Athens)

Abstract

Due to the negative impacts of fossil fuels and the high pollution of air, soil, and water, environmental preservation is one of the most important challenges for the scientific community.

On the other hand, catalysis is a key enabling technology for achieving efficient, economic, and more sustainable utilization of resources. It provides lower energy processes, reduced waste and pollution, as well as improved selectivity in producing added-value products. About 90 % of all chemical processes use catalysts. Heterogeneous catalysts are already a key component in many processes, from petrochemical conversions to catalytic converters, and enable significant benefits such as catalyst/product separation, reuse, and recyclability.

Several types of heterogeneous catalysts (hybrid materials, supported metal oxides, perovskites, zeolites, etc.) have been developed and applied in different fields such as clean energy production, biomass valorization, wastewater treatment, and air depollution. about the synthesis and application of materials for energy and environmental applications.

As the world moves towards more sustainable technologies and feedstocks to ensure a cleaner future, heterogeneous catalysts will play an even bigger role. This opens the door to the engineering of novel, next-generation multifunctional catalysts, or even requires looking to the past to redesign more traditional catalysts to meet new challenges. In this regard, designing advanced materials at the atomic scale, an understanding of structure–activity and structure–selectivity relationships, and multiscale modelling aspects are significant.

Speakers Short CV

Dr. Pavlos K. Pandis, obtained his Diploma in Chemical Engineering and his PhD (supported by a national 1st-place scholarship in Materials Science) at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). He has been involved for 15 consecutive years in research projects and has participated in seven (7) EU-funded projects and four (4) nationally funded projects with simultaneous freelance activities since 2014. He has also served as a Visiting Lecturer at (a) the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and (b) the former Technological Educational Institute of Central Greece. His research numbers 48 publications in journals and Book Chapters, and he has contributed to more than 60 participations at international and 30 national conferences. He is an active member of the Sigma Xi community and guest co-editor of four international scientific journals, and his expertise is related to the fields of (i) Green Chemistry, (ii) Advanced Oxidation Processes, (iii) Heterogeneous Catalysis, (iv) Waste Treatment and (V) Construction and operation of Fuel Cells