Converting waste CO₂ into long-chain hydrocarbons offers a sustainable drop-in fuel for heavy transport, enabling decarbonization with minimal disruption to existing infrastructure. Thermal catalysis remains the most viable approach for directly converting CO2 to hydrocarbons via CO2-Fishcer Tropsch Synthesis (CO2-FTS). CO2-FTS as a tandem reaction encompasses CO2 activation to CO, followed by hydrogenation to CHx fragments which can then couple to form hydrocarbon chains under Fischer Tropsch synthesis (FTS). Nevertheless, liquid fuel synthesis (such as the kerosene fraction (C8-C16) that function as jet fuel precursors) underpinned by long chain hydrocarbon production is challenging.
Our recent work demonstrates the potential of visible light irradiation to provide both thermal and carrier-induced benefits, enhancing hydrocarbon production via CO2-FTS under pressurized conditions.1 These findings indicate significant opportunities to harness sunlight for simultaneous heat and carrier excitation to tune the CO₂-FTS hydrocarbon distribution. A strategy for directly converting CO2 to long chained hydrocarbons is to employ rationally designed bimetallic catalysts.2, 3 To this end, the ratio and interaction between the different metals can impact CO2 conversion and carbon coupling.
School
Chemical Engineering
Research Area
Clean energy | Synthetic fuels | Catalysis | Chemical engineering
Suitable for recognition of Work Integrated Learning (industrial training)?
No
- Research environment
- Expected outcomes
- Supervisory team
- Reference material/links
This project provides the opportunity for hands on research work in a state of the art catalysis laboratory including synthesis, charaterisation and evaluation technologies.
The appointed student will be expected to conduct synthesis procedures and material characterisation for developing Fe-based bimetallic catalysts targeting long chain hydrocarbon production. The material and knowledge generated from this project is expected to contribute toward refining the experimental protocol for liquid fuel synthesis integrating sunlight as an energy input, and journal publication.
- Y. F. Zhu, J. A. Yuwono, M. Wilson, B. Xie, P. Kumar, R. Amal, J. Scott and E. C. Lovell, Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy, 2025, 379, 125736.
- L. Zhang, Y. Dang, X. Zhou, P. Gao, A. Petrus van Bavel, H. Wang, S. Li, L. Shi, Y. Yang, E. I. Vovk, Y. Gao and Y. Sun, The Innovation, 2021, 2, 100170.
- J. Zhao, J. Liu, Z. Li, K. Wang, R. Shi, P. Wang, Q. Wang, G. I. N. Waterhouse, X. Wen and T. Zhang, Nat. Commun., 2023, 14, 1909.