The American Chemical Society's Board of Directors has awarded Petroleum Research Fund grants to 126 researchers, including chemistry professor Liviu M. Mirica, in the second application round of 2024.

Mirica said this award from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund will allow his research group to develop functional model systems of the carbon monoxide dehydrogenase/acetyl-CoA synthase enzymatic system that convert carbon dioxide to useful chemicals. 

"If successful, our approach will allow us to couple the electroreduction of carbon dioxide with a biomimetic process of using the resulting carbon monoxide in an unsymmetric C-C coupling process to generate products containing two or more carbon atoms,” said Mirica, William H. and Janet G. Lycan Professor of Chemistry.

The grant recipients were announced Nov. 5, 2024. According to the announcement in C&EN magazine, the purpose of ACS PRF grants is to provide seed money that allows researchers to pursue a new direction in petroleum-relevant science. The grants provide money to researchers in four categories—doctoral new investigators, new directions, undergraduate new investigators, and undergraduate research grants—across 10 different areas of research. Two rounds of funding take place each year, but this year was the first time that supplemental funding was given to awardees in an effort to boost the research capacity at undergraduate institutions.

The ACS PRF awards close to $20 million a year to around 180 investigators through two application rounds, one in the spring and one in the fall. Applications go through a thorough review process, and the ACS Board of Directors approves each applicant.