About

Paul J.A. Kenis is the Director of the Kenis Group at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and holds the Elio Eliakim Tarika Endowed Chair in Chemical Engineering within the School of Chemical Sciences. His research focuses on reactor and reaction engineering for electrochemical manufacturing and nanomaterial discovery. The Kenis Group works on various aspects of electrochemical processes including electrosynthesis, autonomous synthesis, membranes, microdroplets, and related instrumentation and protocols. As the principal investigator, Professor Kenis leads a team of graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and undergraduate students engaged in cutting-edge research on topics such as ammonia electrolysis, CO2 electrolysis and capture, water electrolysis, plasma electrolysis, glycerol electrolysis, and microdroplet chemistry. The group emphasizes innovation in electrochemical manufacturing technologies and the discovery of new nanomaterials through advanced reactor design and reaction engineering.

Research topics

• Chemical engineering
• Materials science
• Organic chemistry
• Chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Chromatography
• Physics
• Nanotechnology
• Optoelectronics
• Physical chemistry

Selected publications

• Ultrathin Microporous Interlayer in a Membrane Electrode Assembly Cell for Efficient and Scalable Electroreduction of CO ₂ to Formate

  ACS Energy Letters · 2026-04-08

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Scaling of CO ₂ -to-CO Membrane Electrode Assembly Cell: From 5 cm ² Single Cell to 300 cm ² Stack

  ACS Energy Letters · 2026-03-03 · 2 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Translation of electrochemical carbon dioxide (CO2)-to-carbon monoxide (CO) conversion in membrane electrode assembly cells to industrially relevant dimensions and robustness remains constrained by issues, such as cathode flooding, salt formation, and electrode degradation at elevated current densities. Through scaling from a 5 cm2 cell to a 300 cm2 stack, we address three specific challenges: (i) uniform dispersion of fluorinated ethylene propylene with in the Ag cathode prevents flooding; (ii) baffled serpentine flow fields accelerate liquid removal from gas diffusion layers; and (iii) corrosion-resistant IrO2-coated dimensionally stable anode replaces the carbon-based anode to ensure stable oxygen evolution. The optimized 100 cm2 cell sustains a 95.2% CO selectivity at 30 A with minimal voltage drift. A 300 cm2 stack achieves 89.8% CO selectivity at 90 A, producing 25.1 mmol of CO min–1. In aggregate, these results address key challenges related to translation of CO2-to-CO electrolysis from laboratory- to pilot-scale.

  PublisherDOI

• Turning Waste into Value: Technoeconomic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment of Biodiesel-Derived Crude Glycerol Electrooxidation

  Environmental Science & Technology · 2026-02-05

  articleOpen access

  The U.S. biodiesel industry faces significant economic challenges, exacerbated by declining glycerol coproduct values and rising feedstock costs and leading to numerous plant closures. In this study, we investigate the technoeconomic and environmental viability of electrochemically upcycling low-value industrial-grade crude glycerol (50 wt % glycerol) and methanol-depleted crude glycerol (80 wt % glycerol) into formic acid, a valuable chemical commodity. Through process modeling, we assess purification processes and electrochemical oxidation pathways for these waste glycerol streams. Our findings indicate that utilizing low-value crude glycerol can produce formic acid at competitive costs, contingent upon advancements in catalyst efficiency and reactor design. Life cycle assessments reveal that this approach could reduce environmental impacts compared to traditional formic acid production, especially as the U.S. electricity grid decarbonizes through additional renewable energy deployment. State-level analyses highlight the influence of regional electricity prices, water costs, policies, and incentives on economic feasibility. By enabling the circular use of biodiesel-derived waste, this work supports more resilient renewable fuel systems and advances sustainable chemical manufacturing.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Harnessing Flexibility from Inflexible Systems: A Case Study in Electrolysis

  ChemRxiv · 2026-04-12

  article

  Electrochemical devices can play a critical role in providing demand-side flexibility to the power grid, enabling greater integration of renewable power and enhancing system resilience. However, highly dynamic operation that tracks fluctuating market signals can accelerate degradation. This work proposes a new operational paradigm that aggregates parallel units operating under structured dynamic protocols with the goal of mitigating device degradation. Using a grid-connected hydrogen electrolysis system as a case study, we develop an optimization framework that determines optimal mixing of predefined structured protocols that minimizes total electricity costs. Our results show that cost of the protocol-based parallel setting closely approximates that of fully flexible operation. This trend is consistently observed across different sets of protocols and under diverse market conditions, demonstrating the wide applicability of the proposed concept. The proposed approach can also enhance predictability and practical implementation.

  PublisherDOI

• Impact of feed composition on performance of PDMS nanomembrane-based multistage CO2 capture

  Chemical Engineering Journal · 2026-01-16 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Carbon dioxide removal is necessary to mitigate the impacts of anthropogenic emissions. Membrane-based CO 2 capture approaches offer portability, scalability, and tunability advantages over sorption-based processes. We developed a benchtop CO 2 capture testbed to experimentally approximate the multistage behavior of a single 200 cm 2 plate-and-frame PDMS nanomembrane module, using a custom feed gas blending station to set each stage's feed composition and estimate multistage performance sequentially. We used this testbed to study the impact of feed composition with respect to CO 2 (0.044% to 10.0%), O 2 (~1% to ~20%), and N 2 on CO 2 capture performance to produce feed streams suitable for subsequent electrochemical CO 2 reduction ([CO 2 ] ≥ 40%). We show that decreasing the O 2 feed concentration by 95% significantly improves performance by reducing the number of required stages to reach [CO 2 ] ≥ 40% by one (for feeds of 1.0% ≤ [CO 2 ] ≤ 5.0%) or two (for feeds of [CO 2 ] < 1.0%). This influence is weaker for CO 2 -rich feeds ([CO 2 ] > 5.0%). These experimental outcomes were corroborated by process simulations. While most prior studies of membrane-based CO 2 capture have focused exclusively on the separation of CO 2 and N 2 , we show conclusively that high O 2 feed content critically impacts CO 2 capture performance and should be considered in system design and technoeconomic analysis. This proof-of-concept study exemplifies the need to emphasize CO 2 /O 2 selectivity as a figure of merit for new membrane materials. Using O 2 removal as a feed pretreatment method may enable nanomembrane-based CO 2 capture from more dilute sources with inexpensive commercial polymers ( e.g. , PDMS) and thus accelerate technological development for sustainable chemical manufacturing using CO 2 . • PDMS nanomembranes offer high CO 2 permeance and sufficient CO 2 selectivity for efficient portable and low-hazard CO 2 capture. • Removing O 2 from CO 2 -lean feeds improves the ability of subsequent stages to further concentrate CO 2 . • The number of stages required to generate CO 2 -rich streams suitable for electrochemical CO 2 conversion depends strongly on the O 2 content of the feed. • Feed composition across four orders of magnitudes, and not permeance which is constant, determines CO 2 recovery rates.

  PublisherDOI

• A Membrane Electrolyte Assembly Cell to Remove O ₂ from Dilute CO ₂ Feeds

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2026-03-03

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Conversion of CO2 to useful chemical intermediates may hold promise as a more sustainable approach to chemical manufacturing. However, CO2-containing streams captured from point sources contain other gaseous components such as N2 and O2, of which the latter may interfere with subsequent CO2 conversion steps. Higher [O2] in the CO2 feeds reduces the selectivity for CO formation in electrochemical CO2-to-CO conversion. This work reports a strategy for removing O2 from a CO2-rich stream to enable efficient subsequent CO2 conversion. We developed a scalable polymer electrolyte membrane-based electrolysis cell capable of significantly reducing [O2] in a gaseous feed. Specifically, the cell performs the oxygen reduction reaction on the cathode to remove the O2 from a gaseous feed, while emitting O2 on the anode via the oxygen evolution reaction, yielding an O2-depleted, CO2-rich stream. Key performance-determining parameters are the cell voltage, [O2] in the feed, and feed flow rate. The O2 extraction cell on both smaller (5 cm2) and larger (100 cm2) scales reduces the [O2] from 10 to 0.4 mol %, running for over 10 h at a rate of up to 0.08 g O2 cm–2 h–1. These findings demonstrate the suitability of this approach for the rapid removal of oxygen from gaseous streams.

  PublisherDOI

• Modular electrochemical synthesis for flexible chemical manufacturing

  Nature Chemical Engineering · 2026-03-25 · 1 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• General approach for automated purification of quantum dots using size-exclusion chromatography

  Reaction Chemistry & Engineering · 2025-10-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Size-exclusion chromatography demonstrates efficient, one-step purification of crude quantum dot (QD) mixtures to generate high-purity QD fractions.

  PublisherDOI

• Valorization of Glycerol Through 2,2,6,6‐Tetramethyl‐1‐Piperidine‐N‐Oxyl (TEMPO)‐Catalyzed Electrochemical Oxidation with High C3 Product Selectivity: Impact of Stirred Bulk Versus Flow Electrolysis

  ChemElectroChem · 2025-11-26

  articleOpen access

  Conversion of glycerol to value‐added products is an attractive solution to the oversupply of this byproduct of biofuel production. The glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) may form product mixtures derived from the scission of the three‐carbon (C3) glycerol backbone, generating one‐ (C1) or two‐carbon (C2) species. Here, the bulk and flow electrolysis (FE) of the 2,2,6,6‐tetramethyl‐1‐piperidine‐N‐oxyl (TEMPO)‐mediated GOR reaction is explored to produce a valorized C3 product, highlighting key selectivity differences between the two methods despite using the same optimized electrolyte composition. Increasing the pH of the solution dramatically increases GOR activity but presents a tradeoff with the stability of TEMPO. At an optimal pH of 10.6 in carbonate buffer in a batch reactor, the reaction proceeds with higher than 90% yield via a 10‐electron oxidation to mesoxalic acid, a C3 product. FE at much lower Reynolds number yields significantly lower selectivity toward C3, demonstrating a high sensitivity to mass transport. The work sheds light on the opportunities toward selectively producing C3 products from GOR as well as the importance of mass transfer considerations for the valorization of this key bio‐feedstock and for others involving mediated electrocatalysis.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Coupling CO ₂ Reduction with Electrochemical Glycerol Oxidation Using Redox Reservoir

  ECS Meeting Abstracts · 2025-11-24

  article

  Increasing decarbonization of the electric grid via adoption of renewable energy technologies requires mitigation of the inherent intermittency of renewable power. Electrochemical technologies provide a unique opportunity to use highly intermittent power to produce chemicals in a distributed manner. Traditional electrochemical systems operate as a coupled system in which both the anode and cathode electrochemical reactions occur simultaneously. Coupling reaction requires consideration such as pH, temperature and product compatibility. Additionally, the kinetically limiting half reaction limits the overall system response, which can limit the ability of the system to respond to electric grid signals that are faster than the limiting time constant. One alternative is using a redox reservoir to decouple the electrochemical reactions which can separate reaction time scales to participate in different markets. Previous work in our group has demonstrated decoupled modular electrochemical synthesis using a heterogeneous redox reservoir - capable of storing electrons and ions across different electrolytes allowing flexible operation of the system. 1-3 Here I will report on my progress in integrating electrochemical CO 2 reduction and glycerol oxidation using a redox reservoir in a flow electrolyzer targeting the scalability of decoupled electrolysis at high current densities, paving the way for more efficient integration of electrochemical manufacturing with the electrical grid. Rui Wang, Hongyuan Sheng, Fengmei Wang, Wenjie Li, David S. Roberts, and Song Jin. Sustainable Coproduction of Two Disinfectants via Hydroxide-Balanced Modular Electrochemical Synthesis Using a Redox Reservoir. ACS Central Sci. 2021 , 7 , 12, 2083–2091. DOI: 10.1021/acscentsci.1c01157 Katelyn H. Michael, Zhi-Ming Su, Rui Wang, Hongyuan Sheng, Wenjie Li, Fengmei Wang, Shannon S. Stahl*, and Song Jin*. Pairing of Aqueous and Nonaqueous Electrosynthetic Reactions Enabled by a redox Reservoir Electrode . Amer. Chem. Soc. 2022 , 144 , 49, 22641-22650. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c09632 Rui Wang, Jiaze Ma, Hongyuan Sheng, Victor M. Zavala*, and Song Jin*. Exploiting Different Electricity Markets via Highly Rate-Mismatched Modular Electrochemical Synthesis. Nat Energy 2024 . DOI: 10.1038/s41560-024-01578-8

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01GM086727

  NIH · $1.0M · 2013

• NIH Grant R33CA137719

  NIH · $842k · 2014

• CAREER: Membraneless Micro Fuel Cells

  NSF · $400k · 2006–2012

• NIH Grant R21GM075930

  NIH · $358k · 2008

• NIH Grant R21EB004513

  NIH · $387k · 2009

Frequent coauthors

• Andrew A. Gewirth

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  74 shared

• Sichao Ma

  64 shared

• Sumit Verma

  61 shared

• Charles F. Zukoski

  University of Southern California

  54 shared

• Reginald B. H. Tan

  43 shared

• Fikile R. Brushett

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  42 shared

• Amit Desai

  37 shared

• Uzoma O. Nwabara

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  36 shared

Labs

• Kenis GroupPI

  Reactor and reaction engineering for electrochemical manufacturing and nanomaterial discovery

Education

• Ph.D., Bioengineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1990

• M.S., Bioengineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1986

• B.S., Bioengineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1984

Awards & honors

• Fellow, Electrochemical Society, 2019