CO2 absorbing Materials Project- RISE

Project Information

CO2MPRISE

Grant agreement ID: 734873

DOI

10.3030/734873

Project closed

EC signature date 16 December 2016

Start date 1 March 2017

End date 31 December 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 702 000,00

EU contribution

€ 702 000,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI SASSARI
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CO2MPRISE (CO2 absorbing Materials Project- RISE)

Reporting period: 2019-03-01 to 2022-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Fossil fuels are still the primary energy source in the world, however, the energy demand, in continuous growth, has led to increased fuel consumption and then to the release of a huge amount of carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere. It is well known that CO2 is the greenhouse gas with the major contributor to global warming: natural processes cannot absorb all the anthropogenic produced carbon dioxide in these centuries, so the development of new technologies for capture and conversion is urgently required.
From the past decades, global emissions of CO2 have been increasing by 60% with respect to the 1990 levels, which represent the reference for the Kyoto Protocol. In contrast, by 2050, CO2 emissions should be reduced by at least 50% in order to limit the rise of the global temperature. While the development of different technologies is rapidly allowing the exploitation of different renewable sources to reduce the fossil fuel consummation, it is still open the search of an efficient, cheap and safe way to sequestrate, confine, and use CO2.
Within this framework, the implementation of CO2MPRISE project is bringing together subject matter experts from the academic and non-academic sectors, in order to develop new technologies in CO2 capture and conversion field, and it is offering ecellence in research activity and training in the related specific topics .
The general objective is to find an inexpensive, effective and robust solution for significant CO2 reduction from industries and civil transport, which represents one of the main and fascinating challenges proposed to the scientific community in the next 10 years and considered as a pillar of HORIZON2020. This project aspires to reach these ambitious results through a common solid knowledge basis arising from a balanced number of secondments that guarantee a cross-sectorial synergy between recognized research centres, industry and academies. Along this line, training, workshops and seminars are planned with the aim to impart to each partner of this consortium the fundamental skills mainly based on the technical aspects, the social challenges involved in this sector, and the market capacity. Particular attention is also given to organize the strategy work of all activities in specific processes in order to introduce the results achieved into the international market.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the period , the CO2MPRISE activities focused on Project management and coordination (WP1), Research activity and technological application of innovative solutions for CO2 capture and conversion: Lab scale (WP2), Implementation and up-scaling investigation: from lab to wide scale (WP3) and Dissemination and Communication activities (WP5).
Implementation of WP1 and WP5 occurs along the whole project, and does not require staff members secondments. WP1: leader organisation is UNISS, several tasks are accomplished and required deliverables released. WP5 leader is UNISS: several task as Project Website building, Dissemination and Communication plan, and relative deliverables, as well as participation to International Conferences to present result of research activity were carried out. Some deviations occurred in the submission time of the deliverables, due to delay in the project starting.
The WP2 and WP3 foresee many secondments of staff members from all the organisations.
The total number of researcher months in period 1 was 36.5 while the one originally foreseen was 72, and reduced to 37 after the amendment . This was needed after the resignation of a SME originally involved in the consortium, and approved in February 2019. The consortium change and delay in the starting of the project caused some deviations and secondment plan rescheduling, reset up by the amendment.
The WP2 (months 2-30), is leaded by UNISS, while WP3 (19-37) by UNISS, UCH and Monolithos. Activity is addressed to the research on innovative materials and solutions for CO2 storage and conversion, at lab level.
Main results:
• The study of mechanochemical activation of the Olivine in presence of H2O and under CO2, was carried out under different experimental conditions, and the chemical transformation, involving relative solid and gas phases, revealed the formation of light hydrocarbons and serpentinization of olivine followed by solid carbonate formation..
• The preparation of porous materials to be tested as photo catalysts for CO2 conversion. Activity has been focused on the preparation of tailored porous systems able to be decorated by nanosized systems able to improve photoactivity properties of the systems.
• Investigation on CO2 capture technology using porous materials and free-metal carbon membranes: Graphene and Ni/graphene systems, and porous liquid systems, specifically, properly functionalised -cyclodestrines.
• The study of the interactions between complex metal hydrides based on Mg, and CO2 involved the complex metal hydrides Mg2FeH6 and Mg2NiH4. The conversion mechanism in the case of Mg2FeH6 follows the reversed water-gas shift reaction which then continues with the methanation of CO in presence of H2O vapor.
• The theoretical investigation by molecular dynamics simulation, of the properties and structure of relevant2028 interfaces involving molten alkali carbonates.
Two papers published in international journals and are, at present, under embargo; 2 more papers are submitted and under evaluation by referees. Several contributions were also presented at international conferemces.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The results of the research activity carried out during the Period 1, within the WP2 and WP3, represent improvements with respect to the state of the art. They will be the starting point to develop further actions concering either basic science either technological applications.
CO2MPRISE is expected to contribute to implement promising process involved in the capture and conversion of CO2 to industrial sector, contributing to have a remarkable impact in the H2020 objectives including job opportunities and the strategy for mitigate anthropogenic CO2 levels in the global atmosphere. The actions carried out will be powerful tools for improving knowledge and technological applications, to significant reduce CO2 levels in the atmosphere, in alignment with the Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy action line proposed by EU.
To this regard, 4 innovation lines, have been selected by the EU in the Innovation Radar, the European Commission initiative to identify high potential innovations and innovators in EU-funded research and innovation framework programmes:
• Mechano-CO2 conversion by cheap materials for producing synthetic natural gas
• CO2 utilization by catalytic membranes for automotive and stationary applications
• Critical row materials based hydrides for CO2 conversion
• Design of non-toxic nano-materials for widespread CO2 conversion
It is expected that during the Period 2, the research activity will allow us:
To fully exploit the lab-scale research activity results in order to apply to upgrade materials preparation and optimize the processes;
To exploit the knowledge in terms of IPR and set up patents and devices;
To go ahead and to widen the different activities aimed at disseminating ant communicating the knowledge and the results gained by the research activity implementation.

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