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CO2 Activation

Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas (GHG) arising from life and human activities. In recent years, the growing consciousness of the dramatic impact of its atmospheric concentration on the climate has brought to conclusion that the reduction of CO2 emissions from all anthropogenic processes is mandatory.
Besides the improvement of the efficiency of energy conversion and utilization processes, GHG reduction strategies proposed in the last decades also include secondary measures such as the carbon dioxide capture and the storage (CCS). Apart from the open technological issues associated to these technologies, as well as the NIMBY objections, it has been recently shown that the costs related to the CO2 re-injection are extremely high, thus making CCS hardly convenient even in the presence of carbon-emission taxes. This paves the way to the so-called CO2 capture and utilization (CCU) technologies, where CO2 is no more considered as a waste to be dumped, but it is used as feedstock (C1 building unit) to produce highly added-value products such as chemicals or fuels.
In addition to these carbon management strategies, the development of CO2 utilization technologies being able to co-activate CH4 and CO2 or CO and CO2 has become more and more strategic when considering that carbon dioxide is present in very high concentrations in many natural gas fields, and is a significant component of in syngas produced through natural gas partial oxidation and steam reforming or through biomass gasification. Until now, it is generally separated from CH4 and CO/H2 with important heat and energy loss.
In line with this premises, it is easy to understand why CO2 conversion technologies are a hot research topic nowadays and why the most studied processes include the CO2 (+CO) hydrogenation into chemicals or fuels and or the so called dry-reforming, i.e., the CO2 conversion to syngas via reaction with methane.
In the last few years, the LCCP has developed a recognized expertise in the field of CO2 activation. Among the research projects carried out by the LCCP we found the modified Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, which can be described as the combination (in a single reactor, using a single catalyst) of the reverse water gas shift reaction and the conventional Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and the CO2 conversion to light olefins.
The conversion of CO/CO2 mixtures trough the modified Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, studied in collaboration with ENEA, the Italian National agency for new technologies, Energy and sustainable economic development, has allowed to develop innovative catalysts, able to maximize the carbon efficiency of the process. More insight on this topic can be found in the following paper: Catalysis Today 228 (2014) 77.
The conversion of CO2 into light olefins is studied within a very effective collaboration with Maire Tecnimont, an industrial leader in Engineering & Construction, Technology & Licensing, and Energy Business Development and Ventures. The idea is that of exploiting the carbon atom contained in CO2 for the synthesis of C2-C4 olefins, key-intermediates (building blocks) in the production of green polymers. To make the process completely green and reduce the reactant costs, hydrogen, required for the hydrogenation of CO2, will be obtained from water making use of the low-cost renewable electric energy available in the electricity grid during hours of low electrical demand. In this sense, the CO2 hydrogenation to olefins can be also described as a power to chemicals technology.

Faculties involved in the project are: Pio Forzatti, Luca Lietti, Carlo Giorgio Visconti