Karen Wilson

Our research focusses on the development of heterogeneous catalysts for use in sustainable chemical processes and the utilisation of renewable resource, specifically waste biomass in the production of fuels and chemicals.
We are particularly interested in the development of nanoparticulate and nanoporous catalytic materials and understanding structure-activity relationships in catalytic processes.

Our research into sustainable catalytic processes and biorefinery technologies is underpinned by establishment of a state of the art catalysis research facility within EBRI equipped with a suite of high pressure autoclaves and multi-position batch reactors for catalyst testing, in-situ spectroscopic and crystallographic techniques for catalyst characterisation (XPS, high pressure XRD, DRIFT, DRUV cells and ATR liquid flow cell), and adsorption techniques (porosimeters, pulse chemisorption) for surface area, porosity and active site analysis of porous catalysts. In addition the laboratory has a continuous catalytic flow reactor for vapour/gas phase reactions equipped with online GC and MS analysis, as well as several off line GC and HPLC instruments for monitoring catalytic reactions, large scale (5L) batch reactors and a suite of furnaces for catalyst synthesis.