In connection to Prof. Ocon’s award as one of the outstanding young scientist in 2015 by the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), his project proposal on CO 2 reduction has been approved for funding by the Department of Science and Technology through the Grants-In-Aid Program.
Prof. Ocon’s project entitled “Electrocatalytic conversion of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into high value chemicals on nanostructured copper-gold electrodes” was given a financial grant of P523,600.00 for the period of February 1, 2016 to January 31, 2017. Included in the research project is one graduate student, Karl Gandionco who is taking up his Master of Science in Chemical Engineering in UP Diliman and three undergraduate chemical engineering students, Reynaldo Geronia II, Marc Francis Labata, and Kirby Lanz Rosales. The project also served as the thesis project of the students involved in the project.
The aim of the project, according to Prof. Ocon’s proposal, is to develop nanostructured copper-gold alloy electrocatalysts to efficiently convert CO 2 into small organic molecules such as ethanol, ethylene, and propanol.
This project is one of the research interests of the Laboratory of Electrochemical Engineering under the Carbon Dioxide Capture and Conversion research area. Another grant was also approved for the conversion CO 2 into formate and was being worked on by a group of senior undergraduate chemical engineering students under the supervision of Asst. Prof. del Rosario.