MW Heating

The RHINO project aims to establish a new electrified paradigm for the chemical industry that incorporates renewable energy sources and decarbonizes this energy-intensive sector. This paradigm shift has the potential to significantly reduce the industry’s carbon footprint, increase energy efficiency, and enhance the production of high-value chemicals, thereby contributing to a more sustainable and competitive chemical industry. 

The core of RHINO’s strategy is the development of electrochemical reactors that use electric power to drive chemical reactions with high selectivity. The project seeks to overcome current barriers by creating a new class of electrified catalytic reactors through an interdisciplinary approach. This approach combines cutting-edge nanomaterials, interface engineering,a deep understanding of reaction kinetics, microwave engineering, and advanced multi-physics modelling.

RHINO will focus on developing two innovative types of electrically driven reactors:

Electrochemical Membrane Reactor Technology. Two approaches for the electrification of membrane reactions are tackled. On the one hand, Joule electric heating in ceramic membrane reactors will allow exploiting the effect of local heating. On the other hand, electrochemical reactors based on membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) will be developed. 

Microwave-Driven Enhanced Catalysis: This breakthrough technology will employ microwave (MW) electromagnetic irradiation to enhance the catalysis of reduction-oxidation (redox) reactions. MW irradiation allows for processing at lower reaction times and temperatures, improving energy efficiency and selectivity. The concept of “non-equilibrium local heating”—where specific domains are heated to much higher temperatures than the bulk solution—will be explored to enhance chemical reactions. 

RASMIA project entails the transformation of energy intensive chemical industry through microwave heating, a more efficient way of supplying energy to the processes using renewable electricity and avoiding fossil fuels.

This coordinated project, financed by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry (PID2022-138336OB-C21) will focus on the design of new microwave driven processes for CO₂ capture and hydrogen generation by Dry Reforming of Methane (DRM). The goal is to contribute to decarbonisation of chemical industry together with process circularity, since the CO₂ captured in the microwave adsorption process constitutes the raw material for dry methane reforming.

RASMIA involves researchers from the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (ITACA) of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), belonging to the Microwave Division (ITACA-DIMAS). The coordination of the project is led by researchers from Universidad de Zaragoza (UNIZAR), Instituto de Nanociencia y Materiales de Aragón, INMA, working in the field of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science.

Despite the potential benefits of converting CO2 to fuel, current technologies face significant challenges that hinder their industrial implementation. Typically, these processes require multiple steps and incur in high capital and operational costs. Furthermore, multiple steps and unfavourable thermodynamics make these technologies energy-intensive, with efficiencies of around 60%.

One promising solution to reduce costs and improve energy efficiency is process intensification using membrane reactors, multifunctional units combining a chemical reaction with a membrane-based separation. Another approach successfully applied within process engineering to achieve process intensification is using electrochemical reactors that give the chance to use electric power to supply the energy required by a chemical reaction and to do it with high selectivity. Both concepts can be combined in an electrochemical membrane reactor, with the transport of substances controlled by galvanic operation. Electrochemical reactors use ion-selective membrane electrolytes to separate anodic and cathodic reactions.

EcoCO2 project aims to leverage the advantages of electrochemical processes, membrane reactors, and advanced multi-step catalysis to set up an innovative electrocatalytic co-ionic membrane reactor for the single-step conversion of CO2, using renewable electricity and water steam, to carbon-neutral synthetic liquid fuels for their use as transport fuel, and in particular as jet fuel, at high energy efficiency, very high CO2 conversion rate and moderate-to-low cost.

The EcoCO2 project is a collaborative endeavour, bringing together 12 partners from 8 European countries financed by the EU under the H2020-LC-SC3-2018-NZE-C.