Catalyzing a CO2-neutral Society

Carbon-based materials and fuels drive human activity and development. The current carbon cycle via natural photosynthesis is too slow to match the speed of modern society, leading to the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere. The capture of CO2 from flue gases and air, and its conversion back to fuels and materials with fast catalytic processes is technically possible and could kinetically balance the carbon cycle. These emerging technologies can be implemented in a 5 to 20 years time-window, as recently articulated in a Viewpoint from the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium. The massive amounts of energy needed to capture and convert CO2 should come from low-carbon energy sources, such as tidal and geothermal but, mainly, from the sun. In this presentation, I will discuss the technological state-of-the-art to catalyze such a CO2-neutral society. Reference Martens, Bogaerts, De Kimpe, Jacobs, Marin, Rabaey, Saeys, and Verhelst, ChemSusChem 10.1002/cssc.201601051, 2017 Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Catalyst structure and C-O activation during FTS : new ideas from computational catalysis

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Minimizing CO2 emissions with renewable energy : a comparative study of emerging technologies in the steel industry

CO(2)emissions from the steel industry are amongst the most difficult to abate, since carbon is used as a stoichiometric reducing agent in most steel mills. This carbon ends up as a CO/CO(2)mixture in the steel mill gases, which are combusted to generate heat, electricity, and more CO2. Strategies to capture and store (CCS), utilize (CCU) or avoid CO(2)in steel production exist, but are highly dependent on the availability of renewable electricity for the production of low-carbon H-2. Steel mill gas contains energy, and can thus be re-used more easily than combustion gas or process gas from the cement industry. In this study, we evaluate several strategies to reduce CO(2)emissions in the steel industry and rank them according to their renewable electricity requirement. We propose the following steps: (1) shut down the steel plant's power plant, since it produces electricity with a carbon intensity that is even higher than coal-based power plants; (2) replace steel mill gas with natural gas to generate heat within the steel mill; (3) recover the reducing gases, H(2)and CO, from the steel mill gases:e.g., using pressure swing adsorption to obtain a H-2-rich stream from COG, and sorption-enhanced water gas shift to obtain a H-2-rich stream and a pure CO(2)stream from BFG and BOFG; (4) the recovered H(2)converts some of the CO(2)to methanol, excess CO(2)is stored. The proposed CCUS scenario can retrofit existing infrastructure, uses proven technology and reduces CO(2)emissions by 70% for a marginal renewable electricity demand. Other energy-intensive alternatives have the potential to reduce CO(2)emissions by 85%, but require an order-of-magnitude more renewable electricity

Catalyst structure and C-O activation during Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis

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