Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York
B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematics, The College of the Holy Cross (2009)
Presentations:
S. Crowley and M. J. Castaldi, “Morphology Dynamics of Precious Metal Catalysts for Use in Steam Reformation of Oxygenated Fuels”, 8th International Conference on Environmental Catalysis, Asheville, NC, August 2014
S. Crowley and M. J. Castaldi, “Morphology Dynamics of Precious Metal Catalysts for Use in Steam Reformation of Oxygenated Fuels”, American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA, November 2013
Z. Thompson, S. Crowley, and J. Adamson, “Dissolution Method Development of a Poorly Soluble API”, Eastern Analytical Symposia, Somerset, NJ, November 2011
M. Stingel, L. Sussman, S. Crowley and K. A. Frederick, “Rapid Method for Assessing Coating Performance in Capillary Electrophoresis”, The Pittsburgh Conference, Orlando, FL 2010
S. Crowley, K. E. Swords and K. A. Frederick, “Development of a Rapid Method for Assessing Coating Performance in CE”, The Pittsburgh Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2009
A. Buga, S. Crowley and K. A. Frederick, “Universal Surface Coating for Microfluidic Chips”, The Pittsburgh Conference, Chicago, IL, March 2009
K.A. Frederick, S. Crowley, A. Dhamko and K. E. Swords, “Evaluation of a Universal Surface Coating for Microfluidics”, Pittsburgh Conference, New Orleans, LA, February 2008
Description of Research
The advancement in liquid fuel production from biological sources will result in oxygenated fuel compositions. While oxygen is beneficial for combustion purposes, its presence within the chemical makeup of the fuel is detrimental to the fuel’s energy density. In understanding how oxygenated fuel may be reformed to remove the oxygen functional groups, we have been exploring ethanol reforming as a test case. Recently, initial results show for the first time that the oxidation state of catalytic Rh nanoparticles changes dynamically under reaction conditions with ethanol and that the extent of Rh oxidation appears to control catalyst activity and the rate of deactivation. Catalyst deactivation is one of the major challenges faced in fuel reforming and there exists a need not only to determine the primary causes, but model them in order to take preventative measures.