How a pinch of Salt makes all the Difference for Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals - The Role of Promoters to Catalyse the Production of Low Carbon Fuels

Introduction

Our large, non-circular use of fossil fuels is the main cause of rapid climate change and resource depletion. CO2 capture followed by conversion back into fuels would be attractive. The feasibility of this route depends critically on new catalysts that allow quick CO2 hydrogenation to desired products.

Catalyst Development

Most man-made catalysts are supported metal nanoparticles. The influence of the type of metal, particle size, and metal-support interaction are increasingly well understood, also due to major contributions from my group.

Role of Promoters

In contrast, the influence of the addition of a few foreign atoms (“promoter”) has so far hardly been investigated for new reactions such as CO2 conversion, while it can have a far larger impact on catalyst activity, selectivity, and stability.

Research Objectives

My aim is to explore and understand promoters and design new, promoted catalysts. Several challenges must be overcome, such as measuring the structure under working conditions and unravelling the complex interplay between promoters and other catalyst components.

Methodology

I will combine:

1. Carbon-based model supports, which allows isolating metal-promoter interaction from other effects.
2. Emerging atomic scale characterisation.
3. High throughput testing under relevant high pressure working conditions.

Fundamental Questions

Using these tools, I will address fundamental questions such as:

• What is the nature of reducible metal oxide promoters, and their interaction with the active metal, CO2, and reaction intermediates, under working conditions?
• How does the structure of alkali promoters explain their influence on the rate of CO2 hydrogenation?
• Can we tune the adsorption strength of reaction intermediates, such as adsorbed CO, to obtain product distributions far from equilibrium?

Conclusion

A detailed understanding of the electronic and structural interaction between metal nanoparticles and promoters is crucial to rationally design catalysts to selectively, effectively, and in a stable manner convert CO2 and H2 into valuable fuels.