© 2024 SURF
In the quest of lowering atmospheric CO2 levels, Zero Emission Fuel (ZEF) B.V. is developing a small-scale microplant unit to produce a liquid fuel (methanol) directly from the air powered by only solar energy. By focusing on numbering up instead of scaling up, ZEF aims to shorten the development cycle of novel chemical processes and products. Within the microplant unit of ZEF, the core process that captures CO2 directly from the atmosphere resembles existing processes that capture CO2 from smokestacks. Therefore, it also inherits the existing challenge of sorbent degradation and short lifetime of chemicals and components: metal inside the process (in pipe, pump, heat exchanger, etc.) act as a catalyst for the lifetime-inhibiting oxidative degradation.
A possible solution that could solve the degradation issues is the avoidance of metals altogether, in the entire process.
In this project, a consortium of both industry and academic partners will kick off a new development roadmap that scouts, develops, tests and deploys new non-metal materials for CO2 capture processes. The small scale of the ZEF-process allows for fast innovation cycles through an iterative approach. The second industrial partner, Promolding B.V., provides a vast experience in the prototyping and application of novel polymers. The groups of TUD (sustainable Design Engineering at Industrial Design Engineering faculty together with Materials Science and Engineering at 3mE faculty) unlock deep understanding of materials and knowledge how to select, tweak or design novel composite materials until the necessary properties have been found.
After this project, the development will continue to result in a chemical process that has longer lifetime, lower cost and is more sustainable. This will not only be at the benefit of the ZEF CO2 capture process, but also at the benefit of the chemical and materials industry as a whole.