CO2 and H2: catalyzing the road to sustainable e-fuels?

On the evening of Thursday 23 March from 19h30 we will welcome Professor Damien Debecker of UCLouvain to talk about ’CO2 and H2: catalyzing the road to sustainable e-fuels?’ The event will be ‘in-person’ at the British School of Brussels at Tervuren and we also hope to record the talk for our YouTube channel.

 

To attend the BSB event registration is compulsory via this form: https://forms.gle/JLYa9Aa27Usn4bXr6 - Registration will close on 22 March 2023.

 

The mitigation of net CO2 emission is currently an absolute priority, for which various strategies must be implemented in parallel. One useful technology, which falls under the umbrella of the “Carbon Capture and Utilization” (CCU) concept relies on the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 (to methane, methanol, or higher hydrocarbons). When methane is targeted, this process is called methanation or the Sabatier reaction. Prof Debecker will discuss the recent developments in design of highly active methanation catalysts. He will also place this in a more general context, questioning the sourcing of both CO2 and H2 and highlighting the fundamental role of renewable electricity. From this, we will try to evaluate the pertinence and timeliness of this “power-to-X” scenario.

 

Damien Debecker is a professor within the Faculty of bio-science engineering at UCLouvain and is currently holder of a Francqui Research Professor chair.