Richard Ciora

My name is Richard Ciora and I plan to graduate with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in the Summer of 2024.  Both of my parents are engineers and I believed I would pursue engineering for as long as I can remember.  I am from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I obtained my BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.  I started my Ph.D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and followed my advisor, Professor Miao Yu when he moved his lab to UB in January of 2021.

One of the major topics of my thesis is based on CO₂ hydrogenation to hydrocarbons in a dehydration membrane reactor.  H₂O is a byproduct during CO₂ hydrogenation and blocks the catalyst active sites. This imposes significant limitations on the conversion of CO₂ to valuable chemicals.  Recent developments in zeolite membranes have led to highly selective H₂O permeable membranes capable of operating at high pressures (>40 atmospheres) and temperatures (>300^oC).  We incorporate H₂O selective zeolite membranes with CO₂ hydrogenation catalysts to remove H₂O as it evolved during CO₂ hydrogenation.  The results obtained during this project have been very exciting and we are writing a proposal for a Renewables to Liquids (RtL) call from ARPA-E utilizing our membrane reactor technology.

In my spare time, one of my favorite hobbies is playing disc golf.  There are many excellent disc golf courses within 45 minutes of UB.  I try to go disc golfing and enjoy nature every weekend even in the harsh conditions typically endured during this time of year in Buffalo.  After I graduate, I plan to work in industry and continue working on separation/reaction processes and contribute to tackling modern chemical engineering challenges.