Filipa Ribeiro, professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and professor at the Center for Technical Structural Chemistry (CQE), is the winner of the 2022 edition of the Senior Researcher Award for Scientific Trajectory in Catalysis of the Ibero-American Federation of Catalysis Societies (FISOCAT), represented in Portugal by the Catalysis and Porose Materials Division (DCMP) of the Portuguese Society of Chemistry (SPQ).

The award distinguishes the scientific work developed and with high international prominence, carried out by an Ibero-American researcher, in the area of catalysis, contemplating its foundations and applications.

Catalysis, in chemistry, is the process of increasing the speed of a reaction due to the addition of a catalyst.

The researcher and professor of Técnico assumes the importance of this award as a personal achievement and a recognition of the objectives for which she has worked as a team, with the support of her collaborators, especially with her master’s and doctoral students. “In fact, this achievement has a special taste” professor Filipa Ribeiro says.

For the researcher this is an opportunity to see her work recognized since she was “involved in the development of catalysts to install in the exhaust gases of cars in the early 1990s, when it was required by environmental legislation that cars had installed catalysts to reduce emissions,” she reports. At that time, the professor said that “there were still no adequate solutions. Técnico entered through a European project and I leaded the team. It was the beginning of catalysis for the protection of the environment”, she explains.

“A very large amount of industrial processes use catalysts”

“I can give you an example that is one of the best known of the production of zeolites. It’s the production of gasoline. The gasoline that is marketed all over the world, a large part of that gasoline contacted with a zeolite, contacted a catalyst, which is a zeolite. And what we can have with the fact that we have this catalyst is that we produce gasoline, meaning, the hydrocarbons (chemical compounds consisting exclusively of carbon and hydrogen) that integrate the composition of gasoline”, she explains.

When we talk about industrial production, the professor explains part of the process and says that “when crude oil enters the refinery is separated and the existing gasoline and diesel is removed. Then there’s a component of heavy compounds that are combustible, but that don’t have the characteristics of gasoline. So these heavy compounds will come into contact with the catalyst particles and the catalyst has an action that causes it to potentiate the breakdown of these compounds into smaller compounds.” From there it is possible to define and control the texture of the compounds you want to produce. “Natural zeolites are minerals. We synthesize them in the laboratory so that they can be used,” she says.

If we observe the common gesture that most people adopt every day when fueling their vehicle at a petrol station, we realize the importance that these processes have in the area of industry. Professor Filipa Ribeiro explains that when “the car engine needs a gasoline 95 or 98, this is controlled through the industrial process… of the reaction that will lead to the production of a certain type of chemical compounds that will then get a fuel with those characteristics.”

But it is not only in the area of fuels that zeolites are present. Another example is laundry detergents (here without a catalyst function).

“The heterogeneous catalyst has another great advantage. It is always recovered in environmental terms.”

There is a difference between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts. Homogeneous catalysts are usually liquid or gaseous. Heterogeneous catalysts are solid compounds, which reveals the potential to overcome the problems associated with their reuse.

“The heterogeneous catalyst has another great advantage. It’s always recovered in environmental terms. It’s not wasted. It’s used. It may lose the characteristics, but then it’s not necessary to separate it and, finally, consume more raw materials, etc., or more energy to separate it from the reaction environment”, which is an advantage, because “it is a solid”, she explains.

By being able to control the characteristics of a material with the aid of a “catalyst” in addition to accelerating the speed of the reaction, I will also be able to have a set of products that are my goal. I’m not going to have secondary products,” she says.

The researcher has also worked “with the integration of some of these zeolites that are used in the process and production of gasoline, which can then be integrated”, she clarifies. “Those who no longer serve and who have to be discarded from the refinery, can be integrated into concrete, construction, or others… in environmental terms it’s not wasted”, which shows an advantage in the use of these components in the most diverse industries, because their use directly impacts on production processes, the environment and, consequently, the economic sector.

The professor began her career through the chemistry of catalytic processes and did a master’s thesis in France with the support of the French Petroleum Institute and defended her thesis in Portugal. She will receive this award that will be presented and recognized at the next Ibero-American Congress of Catalysis (XXVIII CICAT), which will take place in September 2020 in Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil).