Projects
Ongoing projects:
Green valorisation of CO2 and Nitrogen compounds for making fertilizers (CONFETI)
CONFETI project proposes the development of a lab-scale validated innovative technology that is able to utilise and electrochemically convert CO2 and N2 directly from air or flue gases without the use of critical raw materials and using renewable energy sources. By the production of urea from N (N2 and/or NO3–) and CO2, the project aims to ensure a circular and…
Valorisation of CO2 waste streams into polyester for a sustainable circular textile industry (Threading-CO2)
The textile industry is the fourth largest industry in the world with the global volume of fiber production for textile manufacturing reaching 110 million metric tons in 2020. At the same time, the textile industry is one of the most polluting industries worldwide with the highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions corresponding to 10% of the global emissions. Polyester (PET) is…
Development of a molten salt electrofining process suited for the recycling of HALEU fuel production scraps
High performance research reactors (HPRRs) are vital instruments in materials research, nuclear physics and nuclear medicine. Their high neutron flux irradiation capabilities were historically obtained by the use of HEU fuel. In light of nonproliferation there is a strong drive to convert existing HPRRs to high assay LEU (HALEU) and provide HALEU fuel solutions for future HPRRs. Innovative manufacturing techniques…
Towards improved performance of flow batteries through electrode design and stability analysis
Given that the share of renewable energy sources in the world’s power mix is steadily increasing in response to treaties and actions against climate change, energy storage systems have become a crucial player to offset the intermittence coupled with renewable energy sources and allow to match production and demand. In this respect, flow batteries (FBs) offer an enormous potential for…
Novel catalytic materials towards a combined photo and electrochemical conversion of CO2 to methanol
The negative impact of CO2 on climate change makes the decrease of anthropogenic CO2 emissions one of the biggest scientific challenges our current generation faces. One possible solution is the direct photo- or electrochemical conversion of CO2 to highly value-added products such as methanol, using merely H2O as proton source and renewable electricity as driving force. However, in the current…
Femtosecond pulsed laser micromachining for engineering materials and catalysis research
Through femtosecond pulsed laser micromachining a wide variety of materials such as ceramics (e.g. glass), hard metals (e.g. Hastelloy), and polymers can be processed with microscale resolution, offering innovation and beyond state-of-the-art research opportunities. To name a few, the planned research infrastructure would allow to tune the catalytic properties of surfaces, to enhance flow distribution, heat transfer and mass transfer…
Understanding the role of dopants as a key step towards efficient oxygen evolution catalysts (WEAVE)
Water electrolysis has since long been considered as a sustainable and scalable technology to generate green hydrogen, which is a promising candidate to store and liberate energy from. In order to increase the overall energy efficiency of this process, it is important to understand and improve the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction (OER) by developing more efficient electrocatalysts. Crucial in this…
Electrochemical conversion of CO2 to formic acid at elevated temperatures
One of the greatest challenges faced by our current generation is lowering the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere and reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. The electrochemical CO2 reduction (ECR) provides a solution to this problem by utilizing CO2 in combination with renewable energy and convert it to valuable chemicals (here formic acid, FA). However, to make the process more…
BE-HyFE Belgian Hydrogen Fundamental Expertise
BE-HyFE stands for Belgian Hydrogen Fundamental Expertise and reads like ‘beehive’, which is what we want to offer to our research community: an organized structure in which our researchers all work for a common goal, gathering expertise (instead of honey!), cross-pollinate one another with knowledge and – next to the focus on their own research topic – see their role…
Catalysis for sustainable organic chemistry (CASCH)
Catalysis is a key technology to achieve more efficient and greener organic synthesis. Complementary expertise on the development of new (homogenous and heterogeneous) catalysts (redox, photo and electrocatalysis) will be brought together with organic synthesis know-how in one center.
Past projects:
Structured 3D electrodes for green hydrogen production
In order to achieve net zero emissions in Europe by 2050, hydrogen will play a vital role. Naturally, in order to mitigate climate issues green hydrogen, produced by water electrolysis with renewable energy, must be employed instead of grey hydrogen, produced from natural gas. However, with current prices of 2.5 to 5.5 €/kg, green hydrogen is far more expensive than grey hydrogen which only costs 1.5 €/kg. A major factor herein is the power usage, which determines 80% of the green hydrogen price. In order to lower the power usage,…
FLOWER POWER: Design and use of an electrochemical flow reactor based on the COSTA™ technology
The goal of the project is to develop a prototype electrochemical reactor based on the COSTA™ technology. Current commercially available electrochemical reactors demonstrate significant restrictions in terms of mass transfer efficiency, a critical process parameter for heterogeneous catalyzed processes (i.e. electrochemistry). Having proved advantageous for the development of photochemical reactors, the COSTA™ technology will enable us to overcome the limitations of the current commercial electrochemical reactors, and will permit a wide implementation of the developed reactor in the pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industry. While photo- and electrochemistry show much similarity (e.g….
Up-scaling of the zero-gap CO2 electrolyzer
In light of climate change, we started in 2018 with the IOF SBO STACkED project that aims at identifying the most optimal CO2 electrolyzer configuration. The results direct obtained from this project have in October 2019 led to the start of a patent application process with the De Clercq & Partners patenting agency to protect the CO2 electrolyzer configuration.
Sol-gel chemistry to control morphology and porosity of actinide oxide feeds for electroreduction
The global energy demand is currently increasing due to an exponentially growing world population and ever expanding economic growth. Nuclear energy is an important base-load power source that can fulfil this demand with a limited impact on carbon emissions to the environment. The accumulation of highly radiotoxic spent nuclear fuel however is a major disadvantage. The environmental footprint of a nuclear fuel cycle with recycling of fissile material is much lower because of savings on natural uranium resources and a significant decrease in required final repository volume. Several reactor concepts…
Intensification of CO2 capture processes
In order to limit the effects of global warming, introduction of CO2 capture technology is absolutely and urgently required. However, the high cost and technological limitations of available CO2 separation technologies restrict their successful and general industrial deployment in the CO2 capture and utilization (CCU) context.
In this short project, we aim at the development of new and more efficient, sustainable and economically viable CO2 capture and separation technology.
Improving the hydrodynamics of redox flow batteries through 3D printed electrodes
Society’s strive to more renewable energy, states major challenges in the future with respect to fluctuating electricity production levels. As Europe expects a renewable energy share above 45% in 2050, energy storage strategies are required.
Dioxide to monoxide (D2M): innovative catalysis for CO2 to CO conversion
The aim of this project is to study, explore and develop various (catalytic) technologies for the production of CO as platform chemical via conversion of CO2. A technology assessment will subsequently be carried out to evaluate the potential of each technology, pinpointing promising strategies for further development and upscaling.
Bringing the Electrocatalytic Conversion of CO2 to formic acid towards an industrial feasibility by unraveling the fundamental role of the supporting Material (BECO2Me)
Lowering the atmospheric CO2 concentrations and reducing anthropogenic CO2 emissions is one of the greatest scientific challenges faced by the current generation. A possible strategy is to use H2O and CO2 as renewable feedstock for the production of fuels and chemicals. Simultaneously, excess electricity, generated by renewable energy sources, can be utilized to drive these reactions. In this PhD project, CO2 will be electrochemically converted to formic acid. Currently, the electrochemical reduction of CO2 is not yet industrially viable, mainly due to the robustness of the envisaged technology. While a…
Reduction Oxidation Recycling (RedOxRec)
The project aims at providing a working use-case on the recovery of noble metals from production waste of electronics production sites, in order to increase resource efficiency through recycling and this through the development and validation of a small to medium scale and environmental-friendly chemical extraction process based on electrodeposition.
Advanced support materials for electrocatalysis
Over the last decade, the use of nanotechnology in electrochemical catalysis has become extreme important. Sole nanoparticles, however, do not yet constitute an electrode. Hence, deposition on a conducting support structure is indispensable