The alarming increase in the amount of green-house gases in the atmosphere and its severe climate consequences will put life on earth at risk if no quick action is taken on a global scale. While the threat of climate change has resulted in several international political measures such as the Paris Climate Accord for dealing with greenhouse gases emissions, a large technological barrier to tackle this threat needs to be overcome.
Abundant renewable sources such as water and wind, especially in Northwestern Europe, provide great opportunities for generating clean power. While wind can be used to produce electricity, the electrolysis of water produces H2, a valuable energy carrier, which can compete with fossil-based fuels in terms of heat content. The main obstacle in developing the H2 economy is, however, its storage since it is the lightest element in existence and extremely difficult to store. Besides, other sources, such as environmental waste, can be explored for producing H2. Here, C2CAT expertise in catalytic production and storage of H2 will come into play. Another route followed at C2CAT to achieve and keep a clean environment is the design and development of commercial catalysts for producing green chemicals from waste (captured) CO2. An example use case of this is dimethyl carbonate (DMC) with a current market value of more than 350M€ and a market price of 0.7-1.1€/kg. The DMC market is segmented into key applications, including polycarbonates, solvents, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and reagents (e.g. methylation). It is estimated that only from the polycarbonate industry, the generated revenue will exceed 20,000M€ by the end of 2025 due to widespread applications in automotive and electronics, which will be a key factor in stimulating the DMC market size by 2025. DMC’s Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is projected at 6.6%. The problem with the production growth of DMC is the current toxic route used in the production process, which is being more and more restricted by environmental regulations. C2CAT offers tailor-designed catalysts for mild and environmental-friendly processes of (captured) CO2 conversion. In light of the above, C2CAT sees a great opportunity for development. There is strong expertise available at C2CAT to find catalytic solutions for H2 production and storage applications and to find viable routes to utilise CO2, a compound which is otherwise regarded as an environmental hazard.
