PRIN 2017 - 2017WR2LRS_004 - GIUSEPPE BONURA (DIT.AD002.125)

Thematic area

Engineering, ICT and technologies for energy and transportation

Project area

Structure responsible for the research project

Institute for advanced energy technologies "Nicola Giordano" (ITAE)

Project manager

GIUSEPPE BONURA
Phone number: 090624205
Email: bonura@itae.cnr.it

Abstract

The use of waste carbon resources, such as CO2, and renewable energy (RE) in the frame of a circular economy to go beyond the nearly exclusive use of fossil fuels for chemical production (both as energy and carbon source) is the current target in Europe, as evidenced from EU H2020 calls on these topics, industrial activities and recent reports of main international agencies, the latter showing that fossil fuels will be shortly no longer the most economic possibility. It is thus necessary to develop the science and technology bases for this transition. Polymers are a major volume chemical and thus their production starting from waste CO2 and RE is a priority target. However, the routes under current investigation (to polyols, polyurethane, polycarbonate) show main limits: low incorporation of CO2 and low degree of fossil use. The CO2 ONLY project will thus develop novel routes of synthesis of monomers for polymerization i) based only on CO2 as carbon source, ii) utilizing RE to provide the energy for the conversion and iii) which avoid the use of high-energy intermediates produced starting from fossil resources.

Goals

Main goals:
- Synthesis of methanol from CO2
- Synthesis of light olefins from methanol/DME
- Synthesis of ethylene glycol from CO2
- Synthesis of cyclic carbonate by reaction of CO2 with glycols rather than with epoxides
- Synthesis and characteristics of green polymers (not based on fossil sources

Start date of activity

05/06/2019

Keywords

Green chemistry, Polymer chemistry, CO2 and monomers for polymers

Last update: 25/08/2025