Carrie Farberow

Chemical and Biological Engineering Affiliate Faculty

Dr. Carrie Farberow is a Principal Investigator and Group Research Manager of the Catalyst Design and Synthesis team in the Catalytic Carbon Transformation & Scale-up Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and an Affiliate Faculty member in the Colorado School of Mines Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. Carrie’s research aims to design processes and catalysts to produce fuels and chemicals from biomass and waste resources. Toward this goal, her specific expertise is in experimental reaction kinetics, materials characterization, quantum chemical calculations, and kinetic and microkinetic modeling. Since 2019, Carrie has served as Principal Investigator for the NREL Atomic-scale Modeling project within the multi-lab DOE Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO)-funded Consortium for Computational Physics and Chemistry (CCPC). In this role, she leads and contributes to several research projects integrating experimental studies with computational modeling through the use of high-performance computing systems. Reaction applications for this work have included hydrodeoxygenation for vapor-phase upgrading in ex situ catalytic fast pyrolysis, coprocessing of biomass with petroleum-derived oils, and dimethyl ether homologation for the production of high-octane gasoline, among others. An additional focus of her research and area of continued interest is the development of foundational structure-function relationships for next-generation, multi-functional catalyst materials (e.g., metal-modified zeolites, metal carbides). Carrie also serves as Co-Investigator for development of the Catalyst Property Database within the ChemCatBio DataHub, a centralized and publicly accessible data resource aimed at enabling broader application of predictive capabilities in catalyst research and development. Carrie has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and worked as a Process Engineer at Chevron Phillips Chemical Company prior to completing her doctorate in Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.