About

T. Alan Hatton is the Ralph Landau Professor of Chemical Engineering Practice at MIT. He is also a Post-Tenure faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on chemical engineering, with particular emphasis on areas related to energy, environment, and sustainability. As a distinguished member of the MIT faculty, he contributes to the academic community through teaching, research, and leadership in the field of chemical engineering.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Inorganic chemistry
• Materials science
• Chemical engineering
• Nanotechnology
• Process engineering
• Biochemical engineering
• Environmental chemistry
• Physical chemistry

Selected publications

• Pulsed Chronopotentiometry for Electrochemical CO ₂ Capture with Molecular Redox Mediators

  ACS Energy Letters · 2026-02-01 · 1 citations

  article

  Pulsed chronopotentiometry lowers cell voltage and energy input in aqueous Neutral Red-mediated electrochemical CO2 capture. A pulse–reverse current (PRC) protocol provides a tunable operating mode that enables efficient control of polarization while preserving carbon capture performance. By adjustment of the pulse amplitude, duration, and duty cycle, PRC stabilizes the cell voltage and reduces energy consumption relative to direct-current (DC) operation at matched current density. Mechanistically, PRC regulates diffusion-layer dynamics by maintaining a thin, pulsation-controlled inner layer while periodically refreshing the outer layer, thereby suppressing concentration polarization and parasitic side reactions. Timing the on-period to Sand’s transition time preserves favorable near-surface Neutral Red/leuco-Neutral Red (NR/NRH2) concentrations without increasing solution flow. These results demonstrate that PRC can match or outperform DC operation through parameter optimization and offers a scalable, energy-efficient strategy compatible with diverse electrochemical reactor architectures.

  PublisherDOI

• Current developments in electrochemical separations

  Nature Chemical Engineering · 2025-09-22 · 2 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Design of Electrified Fiber Sorbents for Direct Air Capture with Electrically‐Driven Temperature Vacuum Swing Adsorption

  Advanced Materials · 2025-08-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract Joule heating is becoming accepted as a highly efficient regeneration technique for temperature vacuum swing adsorption in direct air capture (DAC). This acknowledgment arises from its ability to rapidly generate and transfer heat, along with the convenience of obtaining electrical power from renewable sources. This study presents a unique electrified fiber sorbent (i.e., e‐fiber) design that facilitates Joule heating, enabling energy‐efficient electrically‐driven temperature‐vacuum swing adsorption (e‐TVSA) for DAC. The e‐fiber sorbent is produced via a dip coating technique, in which a silver composite solution is applied to the surface of an open‐porous polymer matrix. The resulting ultra‐thin, interconnected porous conductive layer on the fiber surface not only minimizes the increase in diffusion resistance even after the surface coating process but also offers exceptionally low electrical resistance (0.5 Ω cm −1 ). The e‐fiber sorbent module achieves a desorption temperature of 110 °C in 80 s at 3 V. Notably, only a 5% reduction in capacity is recorded following repeated cycles of e‐TVSA at a CO 2 concentration of 400 ppm. The complicated nature of heat transfer processes is clarified caused by Joule heating in the e‐fiber sorbent module through detailed case studies conducted with computational simulations, offering insights for design optimization and system engineering.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Leveraging Electrons for Electrochemical CO ₂ Capture Using a Hemi‐Labile Iron Complex

  Angewandte Chemie · 2025-08-04 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Abstract Climate change, driven by anthropogenic carbon emissions, demands urgent action to prevent a 2050 tipping point. With CO 2 levels at 427 ppm (50% above pre‐industrial levels), deploying energy‐efficient carbon capture technologies is crucial. Electrochemical carbon capture processes that have been touted to have the potential to meet these needs rely on the applied cell voltage, and electron utilization (CO 2 molecules separated per electron), which has generally been asserted to have a theoretical limit of one. Here, we introduce an electron‐leveraging strategy to enhance electron utilization beyond this limit to 1.43 by employing Fe‐EDDHA, a redox‐active coordination complex having a ligand with multiple hemi‐labile coordination sites. The reversibility and robustness of the system were enabled by the efficient prevention of CO 2 reduction upon the introduction of nicotinamide as a guardian of the iron(2+) center. The proof‐of‐concept cyclic system exhibits a minimum operational energy of 22.6 kJ e mol −1 and an average of 63.7 kJ e mol −1 over 29 cycles, using a simulated flue gas (15% CO 2 ). Our electron‐leveraging strategy holds promise for advancing energy‐efficient electrochemical carbon capture technologies, and offers an alternative to prevalent redox potential shifting methods proposed to mitigate undesired electron transfer reactions in redox‐active materials across diverse operational conditions.

  PublisherDOI

• Feasibility and Design of Distributed Carbon Dioxide Capture Networks in Urban Environments

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2025-12-22

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Cities are hotspots for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions due to their increased rates of human activity. This results in the accumulation of CO2 within urban infrastructure, including in buildings, traffic tunnels, and the ambient atmosphere. Using the City of Boston as an example, this perspective article assesses the technical and logistic feasibility of deploying a distributed network of small-scale CO2 capture systems to targeted urban locations with elevated concentrations of CO2, as this may provide advantageous energetic and kinetic conditions that can reduce the resource consumption of the capture system. It is estimated that a theoretical energy savings between 2 and 15% per tonne of captured CO2 can be realized. Criteria for technologies that are appropriate for urban areas, including sorbent materials, system architectures, and suitable energy sources for populated areas, are proposed, primarily focused on safety, space efficiency, and whether they produce excess noise and vibration. Operational and logistic considerations regarding downstream CO2 handling and transport are discussed. Research pathways necessary for the design of effective urban CO2 capture systems are highlighted, as well as potential economic incentives and policy interventions that can encourage their adoption. At the nexus of public health, global warming mitigation, and community climate adaptation, urban CO2 removal can be important in realizing net zero goals while providing a range of additional societal and economic benefits.

  PublisherDOI

• Metal separation by mineral carbonation coupled with electromediated stripping and regeneration: toward sustainable metal extraction

  ChemRxiv · 2025-09-24

  preprint

  In the context of energy transition, powered by the electrification of mobilities and processes, the demand for metals required to manufacture EV Li-ion batteries, has recently risen dramatically. Although those metals are involved in devices dedicated to renewable energy storage, they are still extracted by highly impacting techniques. Regardless of the feedstock (virgin or waste material), current commercial processes are either extremely energy intensive, environmentally impacting or both. Here, we bring the proof of concept of electromediated metal stripping and recovery as a means to alleviate the footprint of late-stage metal recycling processes. Combined to metal separation by amine-assisted chelation or mineral carbonation, this strategy allowed us to separate and recover nearest neighbors of the first-row transition block, such as Mn, Zn, Co, Ni and Cu from a conventional liquid acid feed. In the long term, this could lead to processes only relying on water, CO2 and electricity as consumables. This new and disruptive separative strategy should offer a sustainable alternative to conventional technologies, which consume massive amounts of mineral acid and bases and produce massive amounts of saline effluents, hence no longer comply with sustainability principles.

  PublisherDOI

• Thermodynamic Assessment of Redox-Active CO ₂ Capture Agent Performance in Aerobic Environments

  Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research · 2025-11-12

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Electrochemically mediated carbon capture is receiving more attention due to its modularity, low-cost, and low-energy prospects. One implementation hurdle is the undesired formation of superoxide, via oxygen reduction, over activation of the CO2 capture sorbent. Modifying the sorbent or its environment can avoid oxygen reduction, but the effect on sorbent activation has not been quantified. Here we use an equilibrium thermodynamic model to investigate the effect of shifting the reduction potentials of a generic one- or two-electron redox-active species in different system configurations. Two-stage systems, which perform sorbent activation and CO2 absorption simultaneously, anodically shift the potential where CO2 can be absorbed, which can be exploited to avoid oxygen reduction. With parameters obtained for specific quinones by density functional theory, we find that previously disregarded molecules based only on the reduction potential may be suitable candidates for electrochemically mediated CO2 capture in two-stage configurations.

  PublisherDOI

• Aqueous Electrochemical CO₂ Capture with Oxygen-Stable Azopyridine Surpassing Electron-Utilization Limits

  ChemRxiv · 2025-11-13

  articleSenior author

  Electrochemically mediated carbon capture (EMCC) in aqueous media offers economic viability but is constrained by poor solubility of redox species and superoxide formation. Here, we demonstrate an oxygen-tolerant EMCC platform using surfactant-assisted 4,4’-azopyridine (AzPy) to enhance solubility and enable super-stoichiometric carbon dioxide (CO2) capture. Experimental and DFT analyses reveal that two-electron reduction of AzPy induces pKa shifts, facilitating the binding of three protons and indirect capture of three CO2. Bulk electrolysis under oxygen (O2) and across varied state-of-charges confirms O2-tolerance with electron utilization up to 150%. Symmetric flow operation in 20% O2 achieves substantially lower energy consumptions of 29.9 and 72.0 kJ molCO2⁻¹ at 15% and 480 ppm CO2, respectively, compared to reported benchmarks. Continuous flow operation further demonstrates simultaneous CO2 capture and release with >100% utilization and a record-low energy of 2.5 kJ molCO2-1. Our study establishes surfactant-facilitated solubility enhancement and electrochemical pKa modulation as robust strategies for efficient aqueous EMCC.

  PublisherDOI

• Solar-Driven Carbon Dioxide Capture Using a Photoelectrochemical Redox Flow System

  ACS Energy Letters · 2025-05-26 · 5 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Carbon dioxide (CO2) capture is essential for mitigating climate change, but scaling existing technologies to address global CO2 emissions will place significant demands on energy systems. To overcome this challenge, we present a photoelectrochemical flow system using anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonate (AQDS) as a sorbent, which is activated by sunlight to capture CO2 under dark conditions and releases it upon reillumination. This system successfully cycled for 70 h, demonstrating both stability and efficiency. Inspired by solar rechargeable redox flow batteries, the system expands on current solar-driven CO2 capture technologies by enabling CO2 release via photodesorption at 0 V vs OCV. While the system is still in its early stages, it presents a promising addition to the range of photo- and electrically driven CO2 capture methods, with potential for future advancements toward more effective and scalable CO2 capture solutions.

  PublisherDOI

• Sustainable Electrochemical CO₂ Capture from Air Using Heterogenized Quinones in Aqueous Media

  ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering · 2025-07-16 · 5 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  The urgent need to mitigate rising carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions necessitates the development of innovative and sustainable carbon capture technologies. This study introduces a dual-electrode electrochemically mediated CO2 capture system, employing the heterogenization of the redox-active polymerized benzodithiophene quinone (PBDT-Q) immobilized onto carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to form a PBDT-Q/CNT composite. The heterogenization improves the composite’s structural stability, conductivity, and enabling prolonged operation in an environmentally friendly aqueous medium. We initiated a systematic evaluation with a bulk electrolyzer, demonstrating efficient CO2 capture and release. Subsequently, we expanded the investigation to a flow-cell system tested with a simulated flue gas mixture containing 13 vol % CO2 and 3.5 vol % O2. The flow-cell system maintained stable performance over 68 cycles spanning 150 h, achieving an average capture rate of approximately 0.21 mmol CO2 per cycle. These results underscore the scalability and real-world potential of dual-electrode heterogenized quinone-based electrocatalysts, offering a sustainable pathway to advance carbon capture technologies.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lev Bromberg

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  140 shared

• Kam Chiu Tam

  101 shared

• Patrick S. Doyle

  Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency

  45 shared

• Gregory C. Rutledge

  39 shared

• A. Sinaga

  37 shared

• Paul E. Laibinis

  Vanderbilt University

  34 shared

• Xiao Su

  32 shared

• Saif A. Khan

  University of Ha'il

  30 shared

Labs

• MIT ChemEPI

Education

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1989

• M.S., Chemical Engineering

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1985

• B.S., Chemical Engineering

  University of California, Berkeley

  1983

Awards & honors

• NAE Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering an…
• Founding Fellow, AIMBE (1992)
• Merck Faculty Development Award (1989)
• Class of '22 Career Development Chair (1988)
• Presidential Young Investigator Award, NSF (1985)