Description du projet
L’engrais du ciel devient plus vert avec l’aide du soleil
Le procédé Haber-Bosch, développé au début du XXe siècle, a été salué pour avoir permis une production alimentaire qui a nourri 30 à 50 % de la planète. Il consiste à utiliser l’azote (N2) de l’air et à le combiner avec de l’hydrogène pour produire de l’ammoniac (NH3). Le NH3 synthétique ainsi produit est utilisé dans les engrais aux quatre coins de la planète. Bien qu’il s’agisse de l’un des processus chimiques les plus importants à l’heure actuelle, les pressions et les températures extrêmement élevées requises pour la réaction se font au prix d’une consommation d’énergie et de rejets importants. Le projet SuN2rise, financé par l’UE, prévoit de faire entrer ce processus dans le XXIe siècle en facilitant la production de NH3 à partir de l’air et de l’eau par le biais d’une réaction alimentée par le soleil.
Objectif
The preservation of our planet is the most urgent issue in the world, and the COP21 conference pushed a lot of researchers to work on technologies for the storage/conversion of CO2 into chemicals. However, since I believe that it is easier not to produce CO2 than setting-up plants to treat it, I propose an alternative breakthrough based on a versatile solar-driven strategy leading to redesign industrial processes.
Facing the Haber-Bosch process for ammonia production (one of the most impactful chemical processes today), I propose the electrochemical fixation of dinitrogen into ammonia, by simply using air, water and ambient conditions. I will demonstrate an integrated device where a photovoltaic (PV) unit will power a regenerative electrocatalytic cell converting dinitrogen to ammonia (E-NRR). A newly proposed Li-mediated approach under mild conditions, derived from a interdisciplinary contamination between electrocatalysis and Li-batteries, will be the key towards a >95% N2 conversion, bypassing both the competitive hydrogen reduction reaction and the complete irreproducibility of recent E-NRR approaches attributed to N-contaminations or degradation of N-based catalysts.
I will further move beyond the state-of-the-art by fabricating transparent devices, that can be integrated in greenhouses, allowing the production of ammonia and ammonium fertilizers directly in farms, bypassing the known issues related to the massive infrastructure of ammonia plants and difficulties in reaching remote communities. The proposed approach will significantly impact also the field of liquid fuels, being ammonia safer and with higher energy density than hydrogen.
Achieving these goals will require multidisciplinary expertise in the field of chemical, material, process and device engineering. In my career I have demonstrated skills in similarly complex projects and in each of these challenging fields, bringing to technological and socio-economic benefits.
Champ scientifique
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Régime de financement
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
10129 Torino
Italie