Solar-driven Nitrogen fixation to Green fuels and chemicals
Research project corresponding to the call 2022 and reference PID2022-141688OB-I00, for grants for «Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento».
The main goal in N-GREEN is to go one step beyond to demonstrate the feasibility of the CO2 and N2 reduction to produce ammonia and urea using a novel solar Photo(electro)catalytic (PEC) reactor containing hybrid materials based on the combination of inorganic semiconductor and CPPs&COFs. N-GREEN ambition is to develop a solar photo(electro) catalytic reactor for a competitive solar fuels technology that addresses at the same time several challenges: i) resilience of production and circularity by a distributed production using locally available resources (solarenergy, earth abundant molecules as N2, H2O, CO2) which bypass the dependence from external fluctuations in availability and costs; ii) integration of renewable energy into industrial processes, with related impact on greenhouse gas emissions; and iii) direct capture of solar energy to produce solar fuels&chemicals (NH3 and urea); iv) development of carbon based photoelectrodes to decrease the dependence of metal catalysts. This technology will enable a new distributed production model, based on available resources, to address the challenge of resilient, sustainable and carbon-neutral production.
