CD Laboratory for Sustainable SynGas Chemistry

Syngas is an important raw material for the petrochemical industry and a potential precursor for liquid fuels such as petrol. The aim is to produce this gas from water and CO2 from the ambient air using solar energy.

Until now, synthesis gas has been obtained from fossil fuels, so the process is not renewable. This laboratory is pursuing a new approach: producing the gas from water and CO2 in a renewable and CO2-neutral process, utilising the energy of sunlight. The process is modelled on photosynthesis in plants. This would be a significant contribution to the realisation of a carbon-based renewable energy economy.

One of the major scientific challenges is to produce efficient catalysts for syngas production. Nature provides inspiration for this with highly efficient enzymes for the production of hydrogen and conversion of CO2 to carbon monoxide. However, the industrial utilisation of these enzymes is limited due to the high cost of isolating them and their sensitivity, particularly to atmospheric oxygen. The aim is therefore to produce inexpensive synthetic catalysts based on iron, nickel or cobalt. These catalysts are also to be integrated into nanostructured surfaces and finally coupled to a photovoltaic component. Suitable nanomaterials and photocatalytic components must be developed for this purpose. The aim is to develop the chemical basis for renewable syngas production from low-cost raw materials. At the end of the work, a small reactor should be available that produces syngas from CO2, water and sunlight.

The potential economic significance of renewable syngas production is enormous: on the one hand, syngas itself is a valuable raw material and could help to reduce the dependence of the modern agricultural, pharmaceutical and plastics industries on fossil products. On the other hand, syngas can be converted into conventional liquid fuels such as petrol or paraffin using Fischer-Tropsch chemistry, a process that is already being used economically. By burning the fuels, the CO2 is released back into the ambient air, closing the CO2 cycle.

This would provide a way of generating not only electricity but also liquid fuels from the energy of sunlight. This is all the more important as two thirds of global energy demand is currently met by fuels and only one third by electricity. Renewable and CO2-neutral liquid fuels would enable a gradual reorganisation of the energy industry: the existing energy infrastructure can continue to be used, and the transport and consumption of energy sources can be handled by the existing distribution networks and combustion plants.