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Research Interests

Sustainable Production of Energy and Chemical Products: Green Chemistry & Green Engineering

Our reliance on petroleum for chemical products and energy is not sustainable. Also, industrial chemical processes could be made both more profitable and more environmentally friendly if they produced less waste. Our research group investigates chemical reaction systems that are important for sustainable chemical synthesis and energy production. The research is aimed at reducing the environmental impact of these vital activities. We often use high-temperature liquid water as the reaction medium, and we avoid the use of organic solvents.  Replacing organic solvents now used in commercial chemical processes with high-temperature liquid water would result in “greener” processes.

Our current focus is on energy production from renewable resources. We are developing novel processes for converting biomass (e.g., algae, lignocellulosic material) into hydrogen, methane, and liquid transportation fuels. These strategies involve chemical reactions, both catalyzed and uncatalyzed, in water near or above its critical point.  We also do fundamental kinetics studies and mechanistic work to build a better understanding of chemistry.

Our goals are to resolve the reaction networks, determine the kinetics for the different steps in the network, and probe the reaction mechanism. Accomplishing these goals provides the reaction engineering information needed for process design and optimization and also provides fundamental, molecular-level details about the reaction chemistry.

Recent Publications

1. T. Pinnarat and P. E. Savage, “Oleic Acid Esterification in Sub- and Supercritical Ethanol”  J. Supercrit. Fluids, 53, 53-59, (2010).

2. N. A. Rebacz and P. E. Savage, “Hydration of 1-Phenyl-1-Propyne in High-Temperature Water with Catalysis by Water Tolerant Lewis Acids” Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 49, 535-540, (2010).

3. J. Fu, P. E. Savage, X. Lu, “Catalyitc Hydrothermal Deoxygenation of Palmitic Acid”  Energy & Environmental Science, 3, 311-317, (2010).

4. F. L. P. Resende and P. E. Savage, “Effect of Metals on Supercritical Water Gasification of Cellulose and Lignin”  Ind. Eng. Chem. Res, 49, 2694-2700, (2010)

5. Duan, P., Dai, L., Savage, P. E., “Kinetics and Mechanism of N-substituted Amide Hydrolysis in High-Temperature Water” J. Supercrit. Fluids 51, 362-368, (2010).

6. F. L. P. Resende and P. E. Savage, “Kinetic Model for Noncatalytic Supercritical Water Gasification of Cellulose and Lignin”  AIChE J. 56, 2412-2420 (2010).

7. T. Brown, P. Duan, P. E. Savage, “Hydrothermal Liquefaction and Gasification of Microalga Nannochloropsis sp.”  Energy & Fuels 24, 3639-3646 (2010).

8. P. E. Savage, R. B. Levine, and C. M. Huelsman, “Hydrothermal Processing of Biomass”, Chapter 8 in Thermochemical Conversion of Biomass to Liquid Fuels and Chemicals,  M. Crocker, Ed., Royal Soc. Chem., pub; pp. 190 – 219, 2010.

9. R.B. Levine, T. Pinnarat, P. E. Savage, “Biodiesel production from wet algal biomass through in-situ lipid hydrolysis and supercritical (trans)esterification”, Energy & Fuels, 24, 5235-5243, (2010).

10. J. Schaidle, C. Moline, P. E. Savage, “Biorefinery Sustainability Assessment” Env. Progress & Sust. Energy, 30, 743-753, (2011).

11. P. Duan, P. E. Savage, “Hydrothermal liquefaction of a microalga with heterogeneous catalysts.”  Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 50, 52-61, (2011).

12. P. Duan, P. E. Savage, “Upgrading of crude algal bio-oil in Supercritical Water”  Bioresource Technology 102, 1899-1906 (2011).

13. P. Duan, P. E. Savage, “Catalytic treatment of crude algal bio-oil in supercritical water: Optimization studies”  Energy & Environmental Science, 4, 1447, (2011).

14. S. Changi, T. Pinnarat, P. E. Savage, “Modeling Hydrolysis and Esterification Kinetics for Biofuel Processes”, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 50, 3206-3211, (2011).

15. J. Fu, X. Lu, P. E. Savage, “Catalytic Hydrothermal Decarboxylation of Fatty Acids over Pt/C” ChemSusChem 4, 481-486 (2011).

16. J. Fu, F. Shi, X. Lu, L. T. Thompson, Jr., P. E. Savage, “Activated Carbons as Hydrothermal Decarboxylation Catalysts for Fatty Acids”  ACS Catalysis 1, 227-231, (2011).

17. P. J. Valdez, J. G. Dickinson, P. E. Savage, “Characterization of Product Fractions from Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Nannochlorpsis sp. and the Influence of Solvents”  Energy & Fuels, 25, 3235-3243,  (2011).

18. S. Changi, T. Pinnarat, P. E. Savage, “Mechanism of Hydrolysis and Esterification for Biofuel Processes”, Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 50, 12471-12478, (2011).

19. P. Duan, P. E. Savage, “Catalytic Hydrothermal Hydrodenitrogenation of Pyridine”, Appl. Catal. B: Environmental, 108-109,  54-60, (2011).

20. P. Duan, P. E. Savage, “Catalytic Hydrotreatment of Crude Algal Bio-Oil in Supercritical Water”, Appl. Catal. B: Environmental, 104, 136-143 (2011).

21. Q. Guan, C. Wei, P. E. Savage “Kinetic Model for Supercritical Water Gasification of Algae”  Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 14, 3140-3147, (2012).

22. C. M. Huelsman, P. E. Savage, “Intermediates and Kinetics for phenol gasification in supercritical water”  Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 14, 2900 – 2910, (2012).

23. Q. Guan, P. E. Savage, C. Wei, “Gasification of Nannochloropsis Sp. in Supercritical Water”  J. Supercritical Fluids 61, 139-145, (2012).

24. S. Changi, T. M. Brown, P. E. Savage, “Reaction Kinetics and Pathways for Phytol in High-Temperature Water”, Chem. Eng. J. (accepted).

25. R. B. Levine, A. Bollas, M. Durham, P. E. Savage, “Triflate-catalyzed (trans)esterification of lipids within carbonized algal biomass”, Bioresource Technology (accepted).

Courses Taught at the University of Michigan

Undergraduate ChE Courses

ChE 230 - Thermodynamics I
ChE 330 - Thermodynamics II
ChE 343 - Separations Processes
ChE 344 - Chemical Reaction Engineering
ChE 444 - Applied Chemical Kinetics
ChE 460 - Chemical Engineering Lab II
ChE 487 - Chemical Process Design II
ChE 490 - Undergraduate Research Problems

Graduate ChE Courses

ChE 528 - Chemical Reaction Engineering
ChE 628 - Industrial Catalysis
ChE 686 - Environmental Sustainability
ChE 696 - Applied Chemical Kinetics

ChE Course Descriptions

Continuing Education Courses

"Reaction Kinetics for the Practical Engineer" (with F. G. Helfferich) AIChE Continuing Education Course, 3-day course.

"Reaction Engineering and Applied Catalysis" (with L. T. Thompson) University of Michigan Engineering Summer Course, 3-day course.

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