The reduction ofCO2 released into the atmosphere and its recovery are among the main tools to combat climate change. The research group of the Politecnico led by Andrea Lamberti, professor at the Department of Applied Science and Technology-DISAT, has been working since 2021 on the CO2CAP project, funded by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council-ERC, achieving a series of important results that have recently made it possible to develop a pioneering innovation.
The project has in fact developed a new technology applicable to supercapacitors, energy storage devices already available on the market today, among the most promising for the advancement of the energy storage and energy recovery sector. Supercapacitors are technologically complementary to batteries, both from the point of view of the production process and from that of end use: they are in fact very useful, for example, to store renewable energies for which the connection to batteries is not optimal.
The CO2CAP research group has therefore worked in the direction of innovating two elements of the supercapacitor by optimising, on the one hand, the electrodes used and, on the other, introducing a highly innovative electrolyte: an ionic liquid, i.e. a pure salt without solvent that occurs in a liquid state at room temperature. Most importantly, the team added an important function to the supercapacitor: by introducing an exhaust gas (e.g. residue from an industrial process) containing CO2 into the device, it ensured that the supercapacitor had the ability to selectively capture carbon dioxide while converting the capture energy into electrical energy. CO2 can then be reused and transformed into high value-added products such as reagents, organic compounds or polymers – and so can the energy produced.
This new technology, which has now been scientifically demonstrated with the publication on April 6 of the article entitled “Energy Harvesting from CO2 Emission Exploiting Ionic Liquid-Based Electrochemical Capacitor” in the scientific journal Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research, has numerous advantages. First of all, it adds a completely new functionality to supercapacitors which, in addition to accumulating energy, will also be able to produce it, with the added advantage of capturing and purifying CO2. In addition, the technology is applied to devices already available on the market and does not require the creation of new production lines. This innovation may therefore be of interest to companies that already produce devices, i.e. manufacturers of batteries and supercapacitors.
The action plan of the European Battery Alliance of the European Union envisages the creation of 30 gigafactories for the production of batteries (and supercapacitors) by 2030: the new technology developed by the research group of the Politecnico will therefore reach an implementation phase – after Proof of concept steps necessary to raise the TRL-Technology Readiness Level – at the right time in a market that is currently growing strongly.
Finally, the new technology could prove advantageous in industrial applications where it is necessary to reduce the large amount of CO2 emissions produced, for example in industries that produce cement and glass, and in general in production companies that have a strong impact on total carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.
Andrea Lamberti, explained: “As part of the CO2CAP project, we have developed an intelligent and multifunctional technology: thanks to a customized supercapacitor, we are able to manage CO₂ capture and energy conversion and storage at the same time. This is a concrete step towards the design of integrated, sustainable systems that can be adapted to the needs of the energy transition”.
(Source: Politecnico di Torino press release)
