Dr. Yoav Barshad

President

Yoav is a chemical engineer specializing in environmental catalysis, spectroscopy, and product development. He has previously founded 3 technology companies and has over 30 years of experience in industrial process control.

LinkedIn CV Patents ZGB Model

CV

University of Michigan
PhD in Chemical Engineering

1986

Yoav developed a catalytic converter to remove NO_X from car exhaust.

He also constructed a Sabatier reactor to convert CO₂ into CH₄ and published the ZGB model.
BarSpec, Ltd.
Founder & President

1987
Rehovot, IL

Yoav developed a spectrometer that used a “free flying” grating to obtain a full UV-Visible spectrum 10 times per second.

BarSpec received investment from Israel Chemical Limited and was sold to BIO-RAD.
Novachem B.V.
Co-Founder & President

1991
Arnhem, NL

The company developed real-time hydrogen sulfide analyzers for the oil refining industry, required for safety and process control.

Novachem received investment and was sold to Novitron International.
Applied Analytics, Inc.
Co-Founder & President

1994
Boston, MA

The company develops innovative measurement solutions for complex environmental applications such as sulfur recovery and biogas upgrading.

Applied Analytics provides engineering support for SKYVAC. Learn more

Patents

ZGB Model

The Ziff-Gulari-Barshad model describes the behavior of a catalyst distributed into islands to maximize surface contact between the reactants.

Inspired by Hannibal’s tactics to defeat a much larger Roman force, the model showed that a catalyst becomes “poisoned” when large clusters of a single reactant form—and that this can be prevented by periodic operation, i.e. introducing one reactant at a time.

The model is frequently cited in catalysis research and underpins the SKYVAC approach to optimal steady-state chemical conversion of CO₂ into more valuable molecules.

The ZGB model demonstrates
the benefit of periodic operation
in catalysis