BioCO2

Project objectives

The BioCO2 project aims to establish an international academic partnership to combine efforts in studying the techno-economic and environmental feasibility of different pathways for decarbonizing high-emitting industries. Research institutions from Poland, Spain, Italy, and Portugal are collaborating to study the potential for reducing the carbon footprint of these industries through carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies and biomass from municipal waste.

The Process Engineering Research Unit is primarily involved in evaluating the technical and economic feasibility of the direct catalytic conversion of CO2 into dimethyl ether (DME), an emerging alternative fuel with high appeal due to its potential for use in compression-ignition diesel engines, reducing greenhouse gas and soot emissions. This route to CO2 valorization has also been compared with the possibility of storing CO2 underground.

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• DeFalco, M.; Natrella, G.; Capocelli, M.; Popielak, P.; Sołtysik, M.; Wawrzyńczak, D.; Majchrzak-Kucęba, I. Exergetic Analysis of DME Synthesis from CO2 and Renewable Hydrogen. Energies 2022, 15, 3516. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15103516
• Facchino, M.; Popielak, P.; Panowski, M.; Wawrzyńczak, D.; Majchrzak-Kucęba, I.; De Falco, M. The Environmental Impacts of Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage on the Electricity Sector: A Life Cycle Assessment Comparison between Italy and Poland. Energies 2022, 15, 6809. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15186809
• Wawrzyńczak, D., Majchrzak-Kucęba, I., Pevida, C., Bonura, G., Nogueira, R., & de Falco, M. (Eds.). (2022). The Carbon Chain in Carbon Dioxide Industrial Utilization Technologies: A Case Study (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003336587

Start and end date

Project Manager

Coordinating institution of the project

Other institutions involved in the project

• CUT - Czestochowa University of Technology (Poland)
• CSIC-INCAR – Instituto Nacional del Carbon (Spain)
• ITAE - Institute of Advanced Technologies for Energy "Nicola Giordano" (Italy)
• CERIS-IST-UL – CERIS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal)

Funding source