Hydrocarbon Biofuels

Great C. Umenweke is a Ph.D. candidate in the University of Kentucky (UK) Department of Chemistry and a Research Assistant in the Sustainable and Alternative Fuels group of the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), where he works under the supervision of Dr. Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez. Before starting his Ph.D., he earned his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering in Nigeria in 2017. In 2022, he conducted research in France on the X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) analysis of bimetallic catalysts. His dissertation focuses on the catalytic deoxygenation of oleaginous biomass to RD and SAF via decarboxylation/decarbonylation. He has received several awards from ACS and the North American Catalysis Society. He has presented his work at multiple conferences, including the 18thInternational Congress on Catalysis, where he received the “Young Talent” label.

Eduardo Santillan-Jimenez is the Associate Director of the Sustainable & Alternative Fuels group at the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky (UK) Department of Chemistry. Originally from Mexico, he joined the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate research intern and then as a graduate student performing his doctoral research at the CAER and the University of Alicante (Spain). After obtaining his Ph.D. in 2008, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) before returning to the UK. He has worked for about 20 years in the areas of catalysis and biofuels, his current research focusing on the application of heterogeneous catalysis to the production of renewable fuels and chemicals, with emphasis on the conversion of waste fats, oils, and greases to drop-in hydrocarbon fuels.