PromSusCat | How a pinch of Salt makes all the Difference for Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals - The Role of Promoters to Catalyse the Production of Low Carbon Fuels

Summary
Our large, non-circular use of fossil fuels is the main cause of rapid climate change and resource depletion. CO2 capture followed by conversion back into fuels would be attractive. The feasibility of this route depends critically on new catalysts that allow quick CO2 hydrogenation to desired products. Most man-made catalysts are supported metal nanoparticles. The influence of the type of metal, particle size and metal-support interaction are increasingly well understood, also due to major contributions from my group. In contrast, the influence of the addition of a few foreign atoms (“promoter”) has so far hardly been investigated for new reactions such as CO2 conversion, while it can have a far larger impact on catalyst activity, selectivity, and stability.
My aim is to explore and understand promoters and design new, promoted, catalysts. Several challenges must be overcome, such as measuring the structure under working conditions and unravelling the complex interplay between promoters and other catalyst components. I will combine (1) carbon-based model supports, which allows isolating metal-promoter interaction from other effects, (2) emerging atomic scale characterisation, and (3) high throughput testing under relevant high pressure working conditions.
Using these tools, I will address fundamental questions such as:
• What is the nature of reducible metal oxide promoters, and their interaction with the active metal, CO2, and reaction intermediates, under working conditions?
• How does the structure of alkali promoters explain their influence on the rate of CO2 hydrogenation?
• Can we tune the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates, such as adsorbed CO, to obtain product distributions far from equilibrium?
A detailed understanding of the electronic and structural interaction between metal nanoparticles and promoters is crucial to rationally design catalysts to selectively, effectively and in a stable manner convert CO2 and H2 into valuable fuels.
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More information & hyperlinks
Web resources: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101141700
Start date: 01-11-2024
End date: 31-10-2029
Total budget - Public funding: 3 500 000,00 Euro - 3 500 000,00 Euro
Cordis data

Original description

Our large, non-circular use of fossil fuels is the main cause of rapid climate change and resource depletion. CO2 capture followed by conversion back into fuels would be attractive. The feasibility of this route depends critically on new catalysts that allow quick CO2 hydrogenation to desired products. Most man-made catalysts are supported metal nanoparticles. The influence of the type of metal, particle size and metal-support interaction are increasingly well understood, also due to major contributions from my group. In contrast, the influence of the addition of a few foreign atoms (“promoter”) has so far hardly been investigated for new reactions such as CO2 conversion, while it can have a far larger impact on catalyst activity, selectivity, and stability.
My aim is to explore and understand promoters and design new, promoted, catalysts. Several challenges must be overcome, such as measuring the structure under working conditions and unravelling the complex interplay between promoters and other catalyst components. I will combine (1) carbon-based model supports, which allows isolating metal-promoter interaction from other effects, (2) emerging atomic scale characterisation, and (3) high throughput testing under relevant high pressure working conditions.
Using these tools, I will address fundamental questions such as:
• What is the nature of reducible metal oxide promoters, and their interaction with the active metal, CO2, and reaction intermediates, under working conditions?
• How does the structure of alkali promoters explain their influence on the rate of CO2 hydrogenation?
• Can we tune the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates, such as adsorbed CO, to obtain product distributions far from equilibrium?
A detailed understanding of the electronic and structural interaction between metal nanoparticles and promoters is crucial to rationally design catalysts to selectively, effectively and in a stable manner convert CO2 and H2 into valuable fuels.

Status

SIGNED

Call topic

ERC-2023-ADG

Update Date

21-11-2024
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Horizon Europe
HORIZON.1 Excellent Science
HORIZON.1.1 European Research Council (ERC)
HORIZON.1.1.1 Frontier science
ERC-2023-ADG ERC ADVANCED GRANTS