Catalysis
Catalyst design and the full analysis stack around the reaction — deepest in in-situ IR (DRIFTS) and GC.
Chan Kim
Chemical Engineer + Catalysis, Reactor Systems, Code, and Economics
A researcher who works across four axes
Reactor Systems
Optical photothermal reactors designed and built from scratch; high-pressure system operation.
Code
Eight self-built tools that run the research.
Economics
Techno-economic assessment and levelized cost of hydrogen analysis.
Research
- Catalysis
- Reactor Systems
- Code
Photothermal NH₃ Decomposition
Designing and building the reactor system for plasmon-enhanced photothermal ammonia decomposition — the case where the tools and the research are the same story.
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- Reactor Systems
- Catalysis
- Economics
Sodium Borohydride Platform
A five-study arc on acid-mediated NaBH₄ hydrolysis — on-board generation, demonstrated at ADEX 2025, and a 500-bar compressor-free system, first author, CEJ 2025.
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- Catalysis
Formic Acid / Formate Dehydrogenation
Operando pH tracking located the acid–formate ratio that maximizes H₂ output — co-first author, ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2022.
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- Economics
LOHC & Hydrogen Economics
Levelized-cost models built from scratch for hydrogen systems — the economics thinking that won first prize at a national mobility idea contest.
Read the casePublications
3 first-author · 9 co-author- 2026Dependence of catalytic properties of strongly supported platinum clusters with atom countsScienceCo-author
How the catalytic behavior of supported platinum clusters changes atom by atom.
- 2026Selective CO-to-hydrocarbon conversion in formic acid–promoted borohydride hydrolysis for PEMFC-grade hydrogen productionInternational Journal of Hydrogen EnergyCo-first author
Trace CO in the hydrolysis stream is converted into condensable hydrocarbons over Ru/TiO₂/Al₂O₃ — from ~10,000 ppm to under 1 ppm — and the hydrolysis exotherm alone keeps the purifier running.
- 2025High-Pressure, Grid-Independent Hydrogen Generation via Chemical Hydride Hydrolysis: Demonstration and Deployment StrategiesChemical Engineering JournalFirst author
From lab bench to a working high-pressure, grid-independent hydrogen generator.
- 2025Promoter-guided reaction intermediate dynamics enhance perhydro-benzyltoluene dehydrogenationACS CatalysisCo-author
How promoter atoms steer reaction intermediates in LOHC dehydrogenation over Pt.
Tools I built for the research
- get-ASAPLiterature radar tracking 85+ journals across 7 publishers, from Gmail alert to public dashboard.Live site: the public dashboard — keyword trends, journal breakdowns, searchable archive.View repoLive site
- paper-autodownLLM triage for new papers — the relevant ones auto-download, file into Zotero, and grow a knowledge graph.Private repository
- paper-organizerDistills the literature into a human-ratified argument graph — claims, evidence, attacks.Live site: the public argument map of the ongoing plasmonics study.Private repositoryLive site
- research-MCPOne local MCP server over both graphs — every answer traced back to real citations.Private repository
Hi there
I work on making hydrogen practical — chemical hydride systems, liquid organic carriers, and photothermal ammonia decomposition — at Seoul National University and KIST. Along the way I build the software that runs the research: pipelines that read the literature, file the papers, and analyze the data, so more of my time goes to the chemistry.
Now working on plasmon-enhanced photothermal ammonia decomposition. I’m completing my PhD and open to industry R&D roles in hydrogen, catalysis, and energy systems — and always happy to talk hydrogen, catalysis, or the tools that make research move faster. Reach me at [email protected] or [email protected], or find my papers on Google Scholar.
Analytical Toolkit
- XPSincl. Appl. Surf. Sci. 2024 · Chem. Eng. J. 2023
- in-situ DRIFTSincl. Science 2026 · Chem. Eng. J. 2025
- GC-FID / GC-TCDincl. Adv. Energy Mater. 2022 & 2025
- XRD · TEM/SEM · TPx · MS · UV-Vis · TGAday-to-day catalyst characterization
- Plug-flow reactorsincl. Appl. Surf. Sci. 2024 · IJHE 2026
- TEA / LCOHincl. Cell Rep. Phys. Sci. 2024 · Chem. Eng. J. 2025
Experience & Education
- 2024 – nowPhD Candidate · Seoul National University (Advisor: Prof. Jungwon Park) × KIST (Advisor: Dr. Yongmin Kim)
- 2023 – 2024Research Intern · KIST Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Research Center
- 2021 – 2023M.S., KHU-KIST Convergence Science & Technology · Kyung Hee University
- 2015 – 2021B.S., Chemistry · Kyung Hee University (Seoul)
12 publications (3 first-author) · 1 patent · 8 research tools · 3 awards
Email meDownload CV