Background

Education

Universidad Industrial de Santander UIS, B.S. Chemical Engineering (2010)
Purdue University, MSc. Chemical Engineering (2013 – 2016)

Experience

• BASF Catalyst Germany GmbH (2016 - present)
• Nalco Colombia, Application Engineer (2010 - 2013)

Awards

Fulbright Scholarship "Desarrollo para las regiones petroleras" (2012)

Project Description

Extensive and diverse studies performed in the last two decades have explored the effects of different variables to improve the Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) for the abatement of NO_x pollutants. Recently, Cu-exchanged SSZ-13 (Cu-SSZ-13) zeolite catalyst has been commercialized due to its efficient reduction of NO_x and superior hydrothermal stability in light and heavy-duty diesel vehicles. Nevertheless, a fundamental understanding of this catalyst and the NH₃-SCR reaction mechanism are still under debate. I perform kinetics and characterization studies to gain insight of the active sites on Cu-SSZ-13 and contribute to the understanding of NH₃-SCR mechanism. Additionally, I study the hydrothermal stability of small pore zeolites, i.e. SSZ-13, SSZ-39, and RTH, and the effect of diesel engine environment to evaluate potential catalysts for the reduction of NO_x using NH₃-SCR

Publications

• J. D. Albarracin-Caballero^, I. Khurana^, J. R. Di Iorio, A. J. Shih, J. E. Schmidt, M. Dusselier, M. E. Davis, A. Yezerets, J. T. Miller, F. H. Ribeiro and R. Gounder, Structural and Kinetic Changes to Small-Pore Cu-Zeolites After Hydrothermal Aging Treatments and Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx with Ammonia, Reaction Chemistry & Engineering, (2017) (^Equal contribution)
• C. Paolucci, A.A. Parekh, I. Khurana, J.R. Di Iorio, H. Li, J.D. Albarracin Caballero, A.J. Shih, T. Anggara, W.N. Delgass, J.T. Miller, F.H. Ribeiro, R. Gounder, and W.F. Schneider, Catalysis in a Cage: Condition-Dependent Speciation and Dynamics of Exchanged Cu Cations in SSZ-13 Zeolites, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 138, 18(2016) doi:10.1021/jacs.6b02651.
• H. Yang, S. W. Finefrock, J. D. Albarracin Caballero, and Y. Wu, "Environmentally benign synthesis of ultrathin metal telluride nanowires" J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 136, no. 29, pp. 10242–5, Jul. 2014.

Patents

• H. Yang, S. W. Finefrock, J. D. Albarracin Caballero, and Y. Wu. Environmentally Benign Synthesis of Ultra-thin Metal Telluride Nanowires. PFR 2014-WU-66865-01. Application Number: 61/991,177. May 9, 2014.