| Grant number: | 23/10329-1 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral |
| Start date: | March 01, 2024 |
| End date: | February 28, 2027 |
| Field of knowledge: | Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials |
| Principal Investigator: | Cauê Ribeiro de Oliveira |
| Grantee: | José Balena Gabriel Filho |
| Host Institution: | Embrapa Instrumentação Agropecuária. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Brasil). São Carlos , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant: | 18/01258-5 - Novel chemical catalytic and photocatalytic processes for the direct conversion of methane and CO2 to products, AP.TEM |
| Associated scholarship(s): | 25/01523-4 - Application of Non-Thermal Plasmas (NTP) in defect engineering of electrocatalysts for the efficient conversion of CO2 into C2+ molecules, BE.EP.PD |
Abstract The increase in carbon dioxide emissions due to the exacerbated use of hydrocarbons as an energy source is the main factor responsible for the worsening of the greenhouse effect. Because of that, in the last years technologies have been developed to transform CO2 into value-added products, thus closing the carbon cycle in a sustainable way. The electrocatalytic reduction of this substrate (eRCO2) is one of the most promising path to convert CO2, since the electricity needed to perform the process can be obtained from completely renewable sources, such as solar radiation. However, biggest portion of the eRCO2 literature has been developed in water, a reaction medium that, despite reducing the potentials applied in the reaction, also provides H+ that compete with eRCO2 on the cathode surface, significantly reducing energy efficiency with the H2 generation as a by-product. Working in supercritical CO2, CO2(sc), is a totally innovative strategy to avoid proton contamination. This fluid as both substrate and solvent guarantees a high concentration of CO2 in the working electrode, a limitation of the aqueous medium, making it also possible to produce molecules with more than one carbon atom in their structure (C2+). A versatile feature of CO2(sc) is its ability to solubilize gases of similar polarity, such as CH4, another important greenhouse gas. Therefore, the main objective of this project is to investigate eRCO2 in a supercritical medium, using CH4 as an electron donor (i.e., absence of water). For this purpose, a special electrochemical cell will be designed, dispensing with the use of a separation membrane (since only CH4 would be oxidized). Efficient electrodes already described in the literature for both CO2 reduction and CH4 oxidation will be compared, thus obtaining an integrated system. Different CO2:CH4 ratios will be investigated, and the use of organic electrolytes will also be a focus. The reaction products will be monitored by techniques such as liquid and gas chromatography as well as nuclear magnetic resonance. It is expected that the project will contribute to the understanding of electrochemical reactions in supercritical CO2 medium, providing new frontiers for research on greenhouse gas reform. | |
| News published in Agência FAPESP Newsletter about the scholarship: | |
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