Perovskite Oxides for CO2 Utilization – Industrial Applicability of Tailored reverse Water Gas Shift Catalysts

Introduction

The catalytic reverse water-gas shift reaction (rWGS) will be a key technological process in the current effort to reduce the global CO2 emissions levels. It enables the utilisation of CO2 as an abundant and renewable carbon source and to transform flue gas into value-added products. Coupling the rWGS reaction with renewable energy sources will facilitate the development of closed carbon cycles and establish circular economy concepts.

Technological Challenges

The main technological obstacles of implementing industrial rWGS processes are stability and selectivity issues of commercial catalyst materials at the required high reaction temperatures. In my current ERC project, we have developed a novel catalyst material based on perovskite oxides that solves these issues.

Perovskite Characteristics

Perovskites are utilised in various high-performance applications (e.g., high-temperature fuel cells) and, due to their compositional flexibility, allow for a materials design approach. In first lab-scale rWGS tests, our novel Co-doped materials even outperform commercial benchmarks.

Development Steps

The design of commercial catalysts strongly differs from materials studied in fundamental research. Hence, several development steps are necessary to successfully utilise our perovskite-based catalysts in industrial processes:

1. The active surface area has to be strongly increased by modifying the synthesis, enabling a scale-up of the catalyst fabrication.
2. The perovskites have to be transformed into structured catalysts utilised in industrial reactors (e.g., pellets).

These modifications enable rWGS tests in a small pilot reactor and benchmarks of our material against industrial standards.

Commercialisation Potential

In parallel, the commercialisation potential of our novel perovskite catalysts for rWGS processes will be evaluated. This will enable us to showcase our vision about CO2 utilisation to industrial stakeholders and to find potential partners for the future development of real-scale rWGS pilot reactors.