Sofie Ferwerda

Sofie Ferwerda

PhD candidate
Utrecht University

Sofie Ferwerda

Department

Inorganic Chemistry and Catalysis

Contact information

Room
Vening Meinesz C building

Email address
s.ferwerda@uu.nl

Key expertises

CO2 valorization, heterogeneous catalysis, operando spectroscopy, catalyst deactivation.

About me

I was born and raised on the island Curaçao, and when I was 17 after I moved to the Netherlands. I completed both my Bachelor in Chemistry and my Master in Nanomaterials science at Utrecht University. Although I’ll never get used to the Dutch weather, I decided to stay another 4 years here for my PhD!

About my research

Dry methane reforming (DMR, CH4 + CO2  2 CO + 2 H¬2) provides a way to convert two major greenhouse gases for the production of synthesis gas. The Ni-based catalysts typically used often suffer from rapid catalyst deactivation due to carbon formation. By gaining new insights into the coking mechanism and structure-performance relationships, with operando spectroscopy and microscopy, we hope to improve catalyst synthesis via rational catalyst design.