Commemorative Issue in Honor of Professor Emeritus Calvin H. Bartholomew in Anticipation of His 75th Birthday

Abstract

Sir Isaac Newton said that if he had seen further than others, it was because he was standing on the shoulders of giants. Within the field of heterogeneous catalysts, Calvin H. Bartholomew, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering at Brigham Young University (BYU), is one of those giants. As a few selected highlights from his career, Dr. Bartholomew has authored several definitive reviews on catalyst deactivation, with special emphasis on sulfur poisoning, carbon deposition, and sintering, for which he championed the use of generalized power law expressions (GPLE) to model the deactivation. GPLE's contain a limiting, steady-state value of activity that is more accurate compared tothan the more common assumption of a simple power law expression, which takes the final activity of the catalyst as zero. He has been active in both cobalt and iron based Fischer-Tropsch catalyst research. More recently, he developed the slit pore model to characterize the pore size distribution of mesoporous catalytic support materials, that which is more accurate than conventional models. Finally, as a major contribution to the field, he published a leading handbook and textbook, Fundamentals of Industrial Catalytic Processes, with his long-time collaborator, Dr. Robert Farrauto. This compilation highlights and complements many of Professor Bartholomew's contributions to the field. The nine chapters comprising the book were written by former students, collaborators, colleagues, and respected peers. Keyvanloo et al.'s study on Fischer-Tropsch catalysis (Chapter 1) honors Professor Bartholomew's extensive contributions to this area. Hallac et al.'s spectroscopic study on iron-based water gas shift catalysts (Chapter 2) hearkens back to Professor Bartholomew's graduate work with iron. Ha et al.'s contribution on nickel catalysts for (dry) methane reforming and carbon deactivation (Chapter 3) go back relate to Dr. Bartholomew's early work on both nickel and methane reforming. Türks et al.'s work on carbon dioxide methanation on nickel catalysts (Chapter 4) builds on these major themes. Martinelli et al.'s study (Chapter 5) continues the steam reforming theme, but with methanol as the reactant on platinum catalysts supported on sodium-modified yttrium stabilized zirconia. The contribution by Xiang et al. (Chapter 6), whose corresponding author is Dr. Bartholomew's friend, Bob Farrauto, echoes some of his earliest work on environmental catalysts. Tu et al.'s contribution on palladium catalysts supported on titania for hydrogen peroxide production (Chapter 7) also touches onrelates to themes of this metal and support in Dr. Bartholomew's research. Finally, Seeburg et al.'s paper on methane combustion catalyst stability (Chapter 8) and Ruelas-Leyva and Fuentes work on chiral catalyst deactivation (Chapter 9) fit with Dr. Bartholomew's consistent theme of catalyst deactivation. In summary, this book covers much of the breadth and points to the depth of Professor Bartholomew's illustrious career. Dr. Bartholomew has taught and mentored student...