Vives is involved in activities in work package 2 – the methanol pilot - which includes establishing two lab setups as demonstration models for pilot partners and other stakeholders. The first lab setup focuses on the production of renewable methanol from CO2 capture in combination with hydrogen gas, while the second lab setup involves the use of methanol as a fuel for combustion engines. The goal of both lab setups is to demonstrate the potential and applicability of renewable methanol in port areas using local raw materials and residual streams.
To achieve this, several research institutions were initially visited to assess the current state of this relatively new technology. All of this institutes are member of the Capture platform (https://capture-resources.be), that wants to accelerate radical technological innovations in the field of sustainable resource recovery by multidisciplinary collaboration between stakeholders, with a clear focus on valorization.
Following a brief overview of the visits and links to further information:
- Joeri Denayer's research group at VUB specializes in chemical engineering, with a primary focus on separating CO2 from flue gases. They employ adsorption techniques using materials like zeolites, activated carbon, and MOFs. Regenerating these materials is energy-intensive, and while there is potential for improvement, it remains a discontinuous process. Additionally, they explore liquid absorption using amine scrubbers and membranes, but these methods are sensitive to contamination. In summary, readily available solutions are scarce, and everything is costly, challenging to implement, and involves a non-continuous process (https://researchportal.vub.be/en/persons/joeri-denayer).
- VITO, located in Mol, Belgium, has two noteworthy research groups in the light of this project. One, led by Assistant Professor Deepak Pant, concentrates on electrochemical conversion of CO2 and hydrogen gas, while the other, headed by Professor Marleen Rombouts, is primarily engaged in material research for absorption techniques. In brief, electrochemical conversion is seen as less efficient for fuel production compared to thermal methods, as practiced by the research group of Atul Bansode. However, electrochemical methods offer their own advantages. Marleen Rombouts focuses on identifying suitable materials for CO2 absorption from flue gases, a process known for its energy inefficiency (https://vito.be/en/co2perate and https://vito.be/en/enabling-co2-capture-and-utilisation-innovative-solid-adsorbents).
- D-CRBN, a startup, is actively developing CO2 conversion to CO through plasma technology, an intriguing approach (https://d-crbn.com).
- Professor Mark Saeys' research group specializes in the heterogeneous catalysis of CO2 into methanol. Within the project of CATCO2RE (Catalytic CO2 Reduction to Solar Fuels and Chemicals) the specific target is to investigate the conversion of CO2 to solar fuels (methane and methanol) integrating new developments in the production of solar hydrogen, with the design and synthesis of selective catalysts active at milder reaction conditions, and effective CO2 capture and purification technologies (https://capture-resources.be/projects/catco2re).
- Participating in the final event of the Interreg program e2c (electricity to chemicals) provided valuable insights into the current state of electrochemical CO2 and hydrogen conversion. Moreover, a pilot setup was built to demonstrate the scalability of this technology (https://www.aanmelder.nl/electrons2chemicals).
- Professor Urakawa and Bansode's research group at TuDelft is researching one-step CO2 hydrogenation to methanol under high pressure. This high-pressure approach offers significantly higher methanol selectivity and CO2 conversion compared to traditional, lower-pressure processes, all without a significant decrease in energy efficiency. The initial steps toward upscaling this process have been taken (https://www.tudelft.nl/tnw/over-faculteit/afdelingen/chemical-engineering/principal-scientists/atul-bansode).