Glycerol is an abundant biomass-derived feedstock and a major by-product of biodiesel production, making it an attractive renewable feedstock for sustainable chemical manufacturing. Rather than treating glycerol as a waste, its selective conversion into value-added chemicals, such as glyceraldehyde, dihydroxyacetone, and glyceric acid, provides an opportunity to improve biomass utilisation and reduce reliance on fossil-derived chemical feedstocks.
Photo(electro)catalysis offers a particularly attractive approach for glycerol upgrading because light can provide additional energy to drive and potentially control catalytic reactions under mild conditions. Glycerol oxidation can also be coupled with reduction reactions for solar-fuel production, such as hydrogen evolution, creating opportunities for the simultaneous production of value-added chemicals and renewable fuels. Understanding the role of light is therefore important not only for improving reaction rates but also for determining whether photoexcitation can alter reaction pathways and product distributions.
A key challenge is that glycerol oxidation involves multiple competing reaction pathways, leading to different partially oxidised products as well as C–C bond cleavage products. While catalyst composition and electrochemical conditions are known to influence these pathways, the specific influence of light on catalyst activity and product selectivity remains less understood. Changes in illumination conditions, such as light intensity and wavelength, may affect charge-carrier generation, surface reaction kinetics, and reaction intermediates, potentially shifting both glycerol conversion rates and product distributions.
This project aims to systematically investigate the influence of light on the photo(electro)catalytic upgrading of glycerol to value-added chemicals. By comparing catalytic behaviour under different illumination conditions, the project will determine how light affects catalyst activity and product selectivity; and establish relationships between photoexcitation and glycerol oxidation pathways. Ultimately, this work seeks to provide fundamental insights into how light can be utilised to control catalytic performance for the sustainable production of value-added chemicals and solar fuels.
School
Chemical Engineering
Research Area
Chemical engineering | Photocatalysis | Renewable energy | Solar fuels
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
No
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
The student will have the opportunity to join the Particles and Catalysis Research Group (PartCat) under the supervision of Dr Michael Gunawan, Dr Denny Gunawan, and Prof Rose Amal. The student will have access to state of the art laboratories equipped with advanced experimental facilities and computational tools for photocatalysis research. This project offers a multidisciplinary research environment where the student will develop a broad set of technical and professional skills, supporting future career opportunities in both academia and industry.
- The student is expected to gain hands on experience in nanomaterials synthesis and characterisation as well as photo(electro)catalytic activity measurements.
- The project will also allow the student to work with other research students to gain valuable interdisciplinary experience.
- The generated knowledge and data may result in a scientific journal publication.
- Continuation of the research as an Honours thesis project is possible.
- Wen, L., et al. (2026). Light-induced selectivity of photoelectrochemical glycerol oxidation using BiVO4 photoanodes. Cell Reports Physical Science, 7, 103443.