Schmidt, Lanny

Lanny D. Schmidt is Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. He obtained a B.S. degree from Wheaton College and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He has been at the University of Minnesota for more than 30 years and has supervised the thesis research of more than 70 graduate students in surface chemistry, catalytic reactions, and reaction engineering. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. 

Ke Liu,1 Gregg D. Deluga,1 Anders Bitsch-Larsen,2 Lanny D. Schmidt,2 and Lingzhi Zhang1... 

THATCHER W. ROOT, SCOTT B. SCHWARTZ, AND LANNY D. SCHMIDT... 

Recent research at the University of Minnesota by Lanny Schmidt and his coworkers suggests that corn could be a feasible source of hydrogen. In this process the starch from the corn is fermented to produce alcohol, which is then decomposed in a special reactor at 140°C with a rhodium and cerium oxide catalyst to give hydrogen. These scientists indicate that enough hydrogen gas can be obtained from a few ounces of ethanol to generate electricity to run six 60-watt bulbs for an hour. 

Extensive studies of CPO reactions were carrried out by Lanny Schmidt et al. [229] [443] using a millisecond fixed-bed reactor. It was possible to produce syngas over a rhodium monolitii at residence times of milliseconds [229]. Platinum was less active than rhodium. It was shown [242] that the reaetions take place in an oxidation zone as combined surface/gas-phase reactions followed by a steam reforming zone with equilibration of the steam reforming and shift reactions. It was also possible to convert liquid hydrocarbons [164], ethanol [434] and biomass [444] in the milliseeond reactor. 

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