Assistant Professor
Office: CHBE 429
Email: chester.upham@ubc.ca
Visit Professor Chesters’ Website
Research Summary
Heterogeneous catalysis, clean energy, CO2-free chemical conversion, GHGs-to-fuels
Education
Stanford University, 2019, Postdoctoral Scholar
University of California Santa Barbara, 2017, Ph.D.
McGill University, 2010, B.Eng.
Research interests + projects
- Reaction engineering
- Kinetics and understanding reaction mechanisms
- Liquid heterogeneous catalysts
- Integration of reaction and separation
- Chemical looping for process intensification and thermodynamic equilibrium perturbation
Today, 75% of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions come from carbon dioxide from the energy and chemical sectors. In the future, CO2-free transportation fuels along processes that produce solid phase carbon or storable carbonates will be important as CO2 emissions become increasingly undesirable and costly to emit. The overall goal of our research is to understand and develop catalysts and processes to produce chemicals, power, and materials in environmentally sustainable ways.
Experiments in CHBE’s Catalysis Labs are used to infer mechanisms and develop new catalysts. The techniques used include operando IR spectroscopy, pulsed and transient analysis of reaction mechanisms, isotopic labeling studies, in-situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, and many other characterization tools. Modeling and collaborations with theorists enhance our understanding. We are particularly interested in understanding how liquid heterogeneous catalysts behave under reaction conditions.
Full publications list
Selected publications + presentations
Hydrogen dissociation and diffusion through molten metal alloy membranes, MD Byun, J Srivastava, R Jubeili, V Agarwal, DC Upham, Journal of Membrane Science, 741, 125079, 2025
Dynamic molten Cu-In droplets catalyze selective synthesis of multi-walled carbon nanotubes during methane pyrolysis, S d’Entremont, N Miederhoff, M Buraimoh, X Bi, DC Upham, ChemCatChem, 17, 01125, 2025
A melt-based reaction pathway for CO2 and CH4 conversion to syngas and carbon using liquid In-Sn, G Cai, NS RajaPrabu, J Srivastava, K Lechner, J Körber, Z Zong, KJ Smith, V Agarwal, DC Upham, Journal of Catalysis, 453, 116465, 2025
Surface and catalytic properties of molten In-Sn and In-Ni for methane dry reforming and pyrolysis, G Cai, NS RajaPrabu, J Srivastava, KJ Smith, V Agarwal, DC Upham, The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 129, 13615, 2025
Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) production in a circular CO2 economy: it’s role in mitigating CO2 emissions, Z Zong, C Rao, C Du, R Lu, DC Upham, Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 219, 109303, 2025