Carbon Dioxide Utilisation: Closing the Carbon Cycle explores areas of application such as conversion to fuels, mineralization, conversion to polymers, and artificial photosynthesis as well as assesses the potential industrial suitability of the various processes. After an introduction to the thermodynamics, basic reactions, and physical chemistry of carbon dioxide, the book proceeds to examine current commercial and industrial processes, and the potential for carbon dioxide as a green and sustainable resource.
While carbon dioxide is generally portrayed as a "bad" gas, a waste product, and a major contributor to global warming, a new branch of science is developing to convert this "bad" gas into useful products. This book explores the science behind converting CO2 into fuels for our cars and planes, and for use in plastics and foams for our homes and cars, pharmaceuticals, building materials, and many more useful products.
Carbon dioxide utilization is a rapidly expanding area of research that holds a potential key to sustainable, petrochemical-free chemical production and energy integration.
- Accessible and balanced between chemistry, engineering, and industrial applications
- Informed by blue-sky thinking and realistic possibilities for future technology and applications
- Encompasses supply chain sustainability and economics, processes, and energy integration
Peter Styring is Professor of Chemical Engineering & Chemistry at the University of Sheffield where his research sits at the interface between the two disciplines. He is interested in carbon capture agents that not only achieve high levels of activity and selectivity, but which also act as catalysts or catalyst supports for the in situ conversion of CO2 into valuable products. Peter also works across disciplines with experts in other fields to take into account social and economic factors such as energy integration, public perception and supply chain economics.
Peter is Chair of the CO2Chem Network (www.co2chem.com), an EPSRC Grand Challenge Network bringing together collaborators interested in CCU. Together with Katy Armstrong and collaborators at ECN in the Netherlands he has co-authored the policy document “Carbon Capture and Utilisation in the Green Economy” (ISBN 978-0-9572588-1-5 for eBook) which has received considerable global attention. A recent paper has been published in Chimica Oggi that reviews some of the catalytic approaches to CCU. Peter is a former EPSRC Senior Media Fellow working to make science and engineering more accessible to the public so is experienced at writing to attract all levels. In 2007 he was awarded the IChemE Hanson Medal for a paper on ski engineering, written to appeal to a wide audience.
Alessandra Quadrelli is the chairwoman of the Sustanability Chair of Chemical, Physics and Electronic Engineering School CPE Lyon since 2009. She is a CNRS researcher in the field of catalysis and organometallic chemistry and teaches undergraduate inorganic and organometallic chemistry courses and the graduate course “Sustainable development and homogeneous catalysis” at CPE Lyon.
Her research interests at the Laboratoire de Chimie Organométallique de Surface, now part of the C2P2 unit, under triple tutelage CNRS CPE and Université de Lyon 1, have focused on gaining molecular understanding of the interaction between organometallic precursors and solid surfaces, such as silica and more recently, metal organic frameworks, in route to heterogeneous catalysts. With Jean-Marie Basset, Mostafa Taoufik and coworkers she has uncovered a unique system capable of achieving dinitrogen splitting with diydrogen on an isolated metal atom.
After her bachelor studies at Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, and her PhD studies at University of Maryland awarded with the Pelczar Award in 1998, Alessandra Quadrelli has been postdoctoral fellow at the Chemical laboratories of Cambridge University and Dipartimento di Chimica of Università of Pisa. In 2002, she integrated the French National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS, and joined the Laboratoire de Chimie Organométallique de Surface. She has coauthored over 35 papers, among which 2 reviews and 2 book chapters. She serves as referee to numerous international journals and as evaluator in French and European proposal evaluations. She has contributed to the European Network of Excellence “IDECAT- Integrated design on Catalytic nanomaterials for sustainable production” and has co-founded with Silvia Bordiga the “NANOCAT- International Summer School on Molecular and Supramolecular Approach to Nano-Designed Catalysts”.
Katy Armstrong is Manager of the CO2Chem Network (www.co2chem.com) based at the UK Centre for Carbon Dioxide Utilization (CDUUK) at the University of Sheffield, UK. CO2Chem is the largest international network bring together academics, researchers and industrialists focused on CO2 utilisation. Started in 2010, CO2Chem is a grand challenge network funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Katy has overseen the CO2Chem’s growth from 100 to nearly 1000 members and develops strategy for the network along with organizing and facilitating network events. Katy has a B.Eng. (Hons) in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Sheffield (2000) and is studying part-time for a PhD in life cycle and techno-economic assessment of carbon dioxide utilisation processes; her research interests lie in life cycle and techno economic analysis of CDU processes and public perception and understanding of CDU technologies. Along with Peter Styring and collaborators at ECN in the Netherlands she co-authored the policy document “Carbon Capture and Utilisation in the Green Economy” (ISBN 978-0-9572588-1-5 for eBook) which has been widely used in the UK government for background information on CDU. Katy’s most recent paper is on the public perception of CDU technologies with Chris Jones and Styring (both authors in this book), this is believed to be the first paper in this area of CDU and the research has raised many interesting issues surrounding how CDU is communicated. Alongside her work at CO2Chem Katy is also a part of the European SCOT (Smart CO2 Transformations) project, looking at the techno-economic viability of CDU and creating a Joint Action Plan for the implementation of CDU across member states.
