Descrizione del progetto
L’innovativa tecnologia dei reattori a energia solare si rivela promettente per una produzione chimica efficiente
Il sole, una delle fonti di energia più sostenibili, potrebbe essere utilizzato per alimentare le reazioni fotochimiche. Oltre agli sforzi per produrre composti chimici in modo sostenibile, tuttavia, l’attuale tecnologia dei reattori fotochimici è limitata nella capacità di controllare in modo efficiente la luce. Il progetto reaCtor, finanziato dall’UE, intende far progredire i moderni reattori a microflusso per renderli adatti a un uso diffuso. I ricercatori utilizzeranno le fibre ottiche per la gestione intelligente della luce e le nanoparticelle metalliche come efficienti trasmettitori di energia. Verranno inoltre utilizzate tecniche avanzate per funzionalizzare i componenti microfluidici. Il reattore microfluidico in fibra ipotizzato potrebbe aprire la strada allo sviluppo sostenibile e più efficiente di prodotti farmaceutici, agrochimici e materiali su scala di laboratorio e industriale.
Obiettivo
Major challenges of the European and worldwide society such as the climate crisis, insufficient environmental protection, food and pharmaceutical shortages, and military aggressions require technologies that substitute fossil fuels with sustainable energy sources in basically all industries. Following the green deal of the EU commission, the European continent shall become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. The chemical industry is a major contributor to CO2 emissions, as it accounts for about 30% of the industry’s total energy use worldwide. Even though so-called photochemistry promises to sustainably produce chemical compounds by (sun)light, corresponding reactors suffer from insufficient light management, even in modern micro flow reactors, which hinders their upscaling to applications in industry. This is exactly where the key to the technological and economic breakthrough lies, and this is where reaCtor comes into play. It will contribute to the ambitious goal of a sustainable chemistry by developing and validating a novel type of light-driven chemical reactor with enormous scale-up potential for industrial applications. It will be based on an interdisciplinary and innovative technological approach, combining optical fibres for smart light management, metallic nanoparticles as efficient energy transmitters, nano- and micro-fabrication for micro-fluidic functionalization as well as monolithic optical integration, and flow chemistry as an eco-friendly and safe chemical technology. For the first time, a demonstrator of the novel reactor architecture will be set-up and benchmarked with relevant photochemical reactions. Ultimately, the proposed fibre-based microfluidic reactors will enable implementation of new and efficient routes driven by light to prepare pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and materials on both lab and industrial scales.
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energy
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacypharmaceutical drugs
- natural scienceschemical sciencesphysical chemistryphotochemistry
- engineering and technologynanotechnologynano-materials
- natural sciencesearth and related environmental sciencesatmospheric sciencesclimatologyclimatic changes
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Invito a presentare proposte
HORIZON-EIC-2022-PATHFINDEROPEN-01
Vedi altri progetti per questo bandoMeccanismo di finanziamento
EIC - EICCoordinatore
30167 Hannover
Germania