Abstract & Biography | Francesc Sastre

Sunlight-powered conversion of CO2 and green H2 to C1 chemicals and fuels
Pau Martínez Molina,[ax] Nicole Meulendijks,[a] Man Xu,[a][b] Marcel A. Verheijen,[c] [d] Tim den Hartog,[a][e] Pascal Buskens,*[a] [f] and Francesc Sastre*[a]

[a] P. Martinez Molina, N. Meulendijks, Dr. M. Xu, Dr. T. den Hartog, Prof. Dr. P. Buskens, Dr. F. Sastre
The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO)High Tech Campus 25, 5656AE Eindhoven, The NetherlandsE-mail: pascal.buskens@tno.nl; francesc.sastrecalabuig@tno.nl

[b] Dr. M. Xu Optics Research Group Delft University of Technology, Lorentzweg 1 (Building 22), 2628CJ Delft, The Netherlands.

[c] Dr. M. A. Verheijen Eurofins Materials Science High Tech Campus 11, 5656AE Eindhoven, The Netherlands

[d] Dr. M. A. Verheijen Department of Applied Physics Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

[e] Dr. T. den Hartog Zuyd University of Applied Sciences Nieuw Eyckholt 300, 6400AN Heerlen, The Netherlands.

[f] Prof. Dr. P. Buskens Institute for Materials Research Design and Synthesis of Inorganic Materials (DESINe), Hasselt University, Agoralaan Building D, B-3590 Diepenbeek, Belgium.

Sunlight-powered reduction of CO2 to fuels and chemicals is a promising strategy to close the carbon loop and facilitate the energy transition. CO2 is a non-toxic, cheap and abundant feedstock. Different products can be targeted through (sun)light-powered CO2 hydrogenation, with methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO) as the main target products.

CO2 methanation (Sabatier reaction, equation 1) has experienced its renaissance. CH4 has a high energy storage density and it can be safely stored and transported in our existing infrastructure. Carbon Monoxide can be produced via the reverse water-gas shift (rWGS) reaction (equation 2). It has a great potential as a building block to synthesize long chain hydrocarbons. The combination of the rWGS reaction and the well stablished Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS), constitutes a two-step process which has potential to become a green technology for the production of synthetic fuels with large demand using CO2 as a feedstock

CO2 +4𝐻2 →CH4 + 2H2O ∆𝐻298𝐾 = −165.0 kJ 𝑚𝑜𝑙−1(1)
CO2 +𝐻2 ⇌CO + H2O ∆𝐻298𝐾 = 41.2 kJ 𝑚𝑜𝑙−1 (2)