Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CO2PERATE (Cooperation towards a sustainable chemical industry)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-02-01 al 2024-07-31
Our society depends on thousands of indispensable molecules such as pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes, and coatings. Such products are synthesized from starting materials that originate from fossil resources, mainly oil. As oil is depleting, alternative starting materials are needed. CO2 is a benign and sustainable carbon source, which in analogy to natural photosynthetic processes can be used to form chemical building blocks. However, despite the potential ascribed to CO2, the scope of chemicals available from CO2 remains narrow. In particular, the number of syntheses leading to carbon-carbon bond formation from CO2 is limited, although C-C linkages constitute the core of all organic molecules. The CO2PERATE consortium (pronounced co-operate) is a cooperation between 3 industrial and 9 academic nodes, with a simple but essential vision: Training of European researchers in the synthesis of indispensable molecules from sustainable carbon sources and with sustainable catalysts. The main focus is on using CO2 as a synthon in C-C bond formation leading to industrially relevant compounds. In order to develop fully sustainable processes, CO2PERATE will react CO2 with biomass-derived starting materials and will use non-precious metal catalysts. The development of CO2-based synthetic pathways is highly beneficial not only for the chemical industry but also for pharmaceutical applications. In particular, CO2PERATE will have major impact on carbon-based isotopic labelling, which is an area of great economic value. The CO2PERATE research program unites leading expertise in catalysis, organic synthesis, computational modelling, isotopic labelling, process plant development, and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and chemical additives. The research will be complemented by training in transferable skills, including entrepreneurship, patenting, outreach and open science, alongside personally adapted career development, with mentoring, intersectorial exchange, and international mobility.
The scientific and training objectives of CO2PERATE are summarized as follows:
Scientific Objectives of CO2PERATE:
SO1. Efficient non-precious homo- and heterogeneous catalysts for synthesis of molecules essential to the industry and society, including carboxylic acids, esters, carbamates, ketones and amides.
SO2. Use of non-fossil starting materials, i.e. CO2 and biomass-derived ethers, aldehydes, alkenes and alcohols.
SO3. New approaches for enantioselective CO2 incorporation into organic matter.
SO4. Simple protocols for CO2-based isotopic labelling of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and proteins.
Training Objectives of CO2PERATE:
TO1. ESRs with essential scientific competences for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, including use of sustainable raw materials, and design and characterization of diverse non-precious catalysts for organic synthesis, isotopic labelling, and industrial applications.
TO2. ESRs with essential transferable skills, including responsible research and innovation, entrepreneurship, patenting, public outreach, and open science.
TO3. ESRs with excellent career opportunities through high-impact publications, personally adapted career development, industrial mentoring, international mobility, and intersectoral exchange.
The scientific and training objectives of CO2PERATE are summarized as follows:
Scientific Objectives of CO2PERATE:
SO1. Efficient non-precious homo- and heterogeneous catalysts for synthesis of molecules essential to the industry and society, including carboxylic acids, esters, carbamates, ketones and amides.
SO2. Use of non-fossil starting materials, i.e. CO2 and biomass-derived ethers, aldehydes, alkenes and alcohols.
SO3. New approaches for enantioselective CO2 incorporation into organic matter.
SO4. Simple protocols for CO2-based isotopic labelling of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and proteins.
Training Objectives of CO2PERATE:
TO1. ESRs with essential scientific competences for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, including use of sustainable raw materials, and design and characterization of diverse non-precious catalysts for organic synthesis, isotopic labelling, and industrial applications.
TO2. ESRs with essential transferable skills, including responsible research and innovation, entrepreneurship, patenting, public outreach, and open science.
TO3. ESRs with excellent career opportunities through high-impact publications, personally adapted career development, industrial mentoring, international mobility, and intersectoral exchange.
15 ESRs were hired in the project and have worked on achieving the scientific goals, together with the involved PIs. The work involved CO2 and biomass starting materials such as lignin and involves development of new homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts based on abundant metals such as nickel. Currently, 37 articles have been published on the scientific results in the consortium. Several additional manuscripts are in preparation.
The 15 ESR have participated in 3 consortium-wide courses on Entrepreneurship, Heterogeneous catalysis & Industrial scale-up, and Intellectual Property Rights, Patent Applications & Diversity, in addition to the courses they have in their individual PhD programs. They have trained their ability to present their work at consortium meetings and at seminars and conference. A network-wide outreach activity on diversity in STEM subjects was organized in 2023. All academic ESRs had an industrial mentor, and most had a secondment to industry within the end of the project period. All ESRs have made an individual career development plan and each ESR had its own supervisory team, which included members from at least two beneficiaries, with at least one academic and at least one industrial supervisor.
The 15 ESR have participated in 3 consortium-wide courses on Entrepreneurship, Heterogeneous catalysis & Industrial scale-up, and Intellectual Property Rights, Patent Applications & Diversity, in addition to the courses they have in their individual PhD programs. They have trained their ability to present their work at consortium meetings and at seminars and conference. A network-wide outreach activity on diversity in STEM subjects was organized in 2023. All academic ESRs had an industrial mentor, and most had a secondment to industry within the end of the project period. All ESRs have made an individual career development plan and each ESR had its own supervisory team, which included members from at least two beneficiaries, with at least one academic and at least one industrial supervisor.
Current approaches for catalytic CO2 conversion are mostly focused on formation of C–O bonds to carbonates or on reduction to fuel molecules. Only a limited number of C–C bond formation reactions from CO2 have been developed. Many of these involve the use of precious metals and non-sustainable starting materials, lead to racemic product mixtures, or are non-catalytic. CO2PERATE will mainly focus on C–C bond formation and will significantly expand the scope of indispensable chemicals that can be synthesized from CO2 in a catalytic and efficient manner. The consortium will develop protocols for chemical synthesis from inert starting materials, derived from sustainable biomass or from cheap saturated hydrocarbons, alongside CO2. The goal is to develop sustainable chemical syntheses, in contrast to most chemical synthesis, which is based on non-sustainable fossil reagents. CO2PERATE will couple this with the design and application of non-precious metal catalysts. Although such metals increasingly are being used in chemical synthesis, their activity and selectivity still lacks behind precious metals; they often require higher catalyst loadings and their reaction pathways are less well understood. CO2PERATE will expand knowledge about the application potentials of non-precious metals and enlarge the scope of reactions they can catalyze. In order to speed up the discovery process, CO2PERATE will employ an interdisciplinary scientific approach, combining experimental and computational chemistry. This sets the program apart from projects that focus on a single discipline, either trial-and-error based experimental synthesis or theoretical predictions that are not verified. In CO2PERATE, computational analysis will be employed to predict improved catalysts, which will be synthesized and verified. Through computational and experimental analysis of chiral catalysts, enantioselective processes for CO2 incorporation will be designed. This is a highly important but largely overlooked area of CO2 chemistry. Tight cooperation with the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, alongside intersectoral exchanges of all ESRs will ensure development of processes compatible with industrial implementations. Together with the pharmaceutical industry, simple protocols for fast CO2-based isotopic labelling will be devised. This will provide a versatile labelling method, which does not alter the properties of the drug to be investigated (contrary to many other labelling procedures) and which can reduce the cost of drug development processes.