Project description
Advancing catalyst design for CO2 conversion
The use of fossil fuels is causing rapid climate change and resource depletion. Converting captured CO2 back into fuels requires new catalysts. Adding a small number of foreign atoms (promoters) could significantly impact catalyst performance. The ERC-funded PromSusCat project aims to explore and understand catalyst promoters and design new catalysts. It will address challenges such as measuring structure under working conditions, unravelling the interaction between promoters and catalyst components, and conducting high-throughput testing under high-pressure conditions. The project will investigate the nature of metal oxide promoters, their interaction with CO2, and the influence of alkali promoters on CO2 hydrogenation rates.
Objective
Our large, non-circular use of fossil fuels is the main cause of rapid climate change and resource depletion. CO2 capture followed by conversion back into fuels would be attractive. The feasibility of this route depends critically on new catalysts that allow quick CO2 hydrogenation to desired products. Most man-made catalysts are supported metal nanoparticles. The influence of the type of metal, particle size and metal-support interaction are increasingly well understood, also due to major contributions from my group. In contrast, the influence of the addition of a few foreign atoms (“promoter”) has so far hardly been investigated for new reactions such as CO2 conversion, while it can have a far larger impact on catalyst activity, selectivity, and stability.
My aim is to explore and understand promoters and design new, promoted, catalysts. Several challenges must be overcome, such as measuring the structure under working conditions and unravelling the complex interplay between promoters and other catalyst components. I will combine (1) carbon-based model supports, which allows isolating metal-promoter interaction from other effects, (2) emerging atomic scale characterisation, and (3) high throughput testing under relevant high pressure working conditions.
Using these tools, I will address fundamental questions such as:
• What is the nature of reducible metal oxide promoters, and their interaction with the active metal, CO2, and reaction intermediates, under working conditions?
• How does the structure of alkali promoters explain their influence on the rate of CO2 hydrogenation?
• Can we tune the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates, such as adsorbed CO, to obtain product distributions far from equilibrium?
A detailed understanding of the electronic and structural interaction between metal nanoparticles and promoters is crucial to rationally design catalysts to selectively, effectively and in a stable manner convert CO2 and H2 into valuable fuels.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences catalysis
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials
- engineering and technology environmental engineering energy and fuels
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2023-ADG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
3584 CS Utrecht
Netherlands
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