Our approach
Design and synthesize advanced materials that enable energy- and cost-efficient separation and catalytic processes for circular carbon engineering
Ex: CO2 sorbents, electrocatalysts, and thermocatalysts
Design and build integrated systems that maximize the energy efficiency and scalability of separation and catalytic processes
Ex: CO2 capture devices and electrochemical platforms for CO2 conversion and critical mineral separation
Investigate chemical transformations of materials during separation and catalytic processes using operando spectroscopy
Ex: Operando X-ray spectroscopy (XAS, XPS) and operando Raman spectroscopy
1) Air-to-X pipeline
Essential products such as polymers, fuels, and food resources are still largely produced from fossil resources, releasing vast amounts of CO2 and accelerating climate change.
One promising route to carbon neutrality is to produce these carbon-based products by sourcing carbon from atmospheric CO2 in air, which we call “air-to-X”. Implementing an air-to-X pipeline involves three main steps: (1) capturing CO2 from air, (2) regenerating sorbents while separating high-purity CO2, and (3) converting this CO2 into chemical feedstocks such as syngas or ethylene. These feedstocks can then be further upgraded into various products such as fuels or food resources.
To make this air-to-X pipeline viable, we need sorbents and catalysts that minimize energy demand in each process, and the entire system must be scalable to address the approximately 40 gigatonnes of CO2 emitted globally each year. To this end, our research focuses on developing scalable materials and systems to enable air-to-X pipelines at scale.
2) Critical minerals separation
Carbon-neutral, energy-efficient separation processes.