Solar-driven Electrocatalytic Biomass Upgrading to Value-added Chemicals

Description du projet

L’énergie solaire pour activer la conversion de la biomasse

Le changement climatique et l’urgence d’une sortie des combustibles fossiles font des technologies renouvelables un facteur de changement instrumental. La baisse des coûts de production facilite la prolifération de systèmes de production d’énergie solaire et éolienne renouvelable. En outre, l’idée du remplacement des ressources fossiles devrait être associée à l’utilisation de technologies renouvelables afin d’absorber les produits chimiques à base de carbone issus de l’industrie pétrochimique. La biomasse apparaît comme une source de carbone abondante et potentiellement durable. Les composés à valeur ajoutée issus de la biomasse ont traditionnellement été examinés à l’aide de procédés thermocatalytiques sur les métaux nobles. Le projet SOLBIOCHEM, financé par l’UE, développera de nouveaux matériaux électrocatalytiques générés à partir d’oxydes et de sulfures de métaux de transition disponibles en abondance sur Terre, afin d’améliorer grâce à l’énergie solaire les composés dérivés de la biomasse.

Objectif

The urgency of addressing climate change and the plummeting costs of renewable solar and wind-generated electricity put these technologies at the forefront of the energy transition to move away from fossil fuels.Moreover as our reliance on fossil resources is decreasing, it is important to think not only about replacing them as an energy source, but also about using renewable technologies to take over the carbon-based chemicals produced by the petrochemical industry. To achieve this, the most abundant and potentially sustainable source of carbon is the biomass, which stores contemporary carbon, and can be readily harvested, transported and stored. Indeed, derivatives of cellulose or the glycerol generated by the growing biofuel industry are prime candidates for the production of value-added compounds in a “bio-refinery”. So far, upgrading of these biomass-derived compounds has traditionally been studied using thermocatalytic processes on noble metals, which presents challenges such as catalyst cost, the need for high temperature and pressurized gases and the generation of coke that can poison and deactivate catalysts. Alternatively, with the access to increasingly cheaper renewable electricity, electrocatalytic processes have a strong appeal, as they are conducted at room temperature, typically rely on abundant H2O as a proton and/or oxygen source, and can provide fine control over the rate and product selectivity through monitoring of the applied potential.

This research proposal aims at developing and studying new electrocatalytic materials made of Earth-abundant transition metal oxides and sulfides, for the valorisation of biomass-derived molecules. The associated performance and mechanisms will be investigated by means of electrochemistry and operando techniques, and integration of the best electrocatalysts with solar energy conversion systems will be explored to demonstrate direct use of sunlight to power biomass conversion in a sustainable fashion.