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Developing net zero solutions together with electrochemists in India
Dr Mojtaba Abdi-Jalebi (MyAV·¶ Institute for Materials Discovery) used MyAV·¶-IIT Delhi Strategic Partner Funds to develop a new, economically viable process for decarbonising industry.
20 September 2024
Climate change is one of the greatest global challenges of our time. If temperatures increase by 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels long-term, ecosystems and human health will be significantly impacted. According to the Paris Agreement, emissions need to be reduced to net zero by 2050 in order to keep temperatures below the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold. Experts around the world agree that fossil fuels and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy-intensive industries are the main contributors to global warming. Decarbonising industry is therefore crucial for achieving net zero.
Scientists in various disciplines around the world are working on decarbonisation innovations. Believing that his expertise in material science had synergy with the knowledge of a team of electrochemists – led by Professor Pravin Popinand Ingole – at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT Delhi), Dr Mojtaba Abdi-Jalebi (Associate Professor in Functional Materials and Energy Devices) successfully applied for the MyAV·¶-IIT Delhi Strategic Partner Funds to start a collaboration.
Green solutions that make economic sense
“One of the key issues we have is that we need to decarbonise a lot of industries that are not willing to do so, because it’s not economically viable,” Mojtaba explained. “Our idea draws on the fact that we want to convert emissions into useful products that they can sell and make a profit out of. That’s why we proposed this project to develop an electrochemical system that can efficiently capture CO2 emissions, and convert them into useful chemicals.”
Methanol is one chemical the collaborators are looking to produce from emissions. It is easily usable in many industries as a fuel, in petrochemistry to produce other chemicals, and even in methanol fuel cells to generate electricity. This “carbon circular economy” could be the key to hitting global environmental goals.
Through this collaboration, the team has developed a nanostructured catalyst – powered by electricity generated from sunlight – to convert CO2 into useful chemicals such as methanol. The process is like an artificial photosynthesis. Since they use solar energy, these photovoltaic devices are carbon negative – a step beyond carbon neutral. To help convert CO2 into usable products, electrochemical input is needed – and this is where the expertise from IIT Delhi came in.
“We have expertise in the development and fundamental understanding of novel functional materials and energy systems, while they have deep knowledge in electrochemistry,” Mojtaba explained. “We have complementary skills to develop a novel energy system like this, with the potential to bring about real change.”
The main issues the team are having to overcome relate to the performance and cost of such a system. They have introduced plasmonic nanoparticles into the system, which is helping to generate more current from sunlight and boost electrochemical processes, which is improving overall performance. Creating a catalyst to directly convert CO2 into specific products such as methanol is technically challenging, and the team is working on solutions to do this in an efficient and cost-effective way too.Â
Green future potential
“There’s a gap in funding opportunities between having an idea, and getting significant funding to drive innovations forward,” Mojtaba explained. “These funds are essentially seed funding, and they really do bridge the gap. The funding enabled us to identify the best international collaborators to work on this idea.”
The fact there is already a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in place because of the MyAV·¶-IIT Delhi Strategic Partner Funds also made collaborating easier. “Sometimes when you want to start a new collaboration, there is some concern about the sensitivity of the topic, or intellectual property,” Mojtaba said. “Since MyAV·¶ and IIT Delhi are already connected through these funds, it gave me a lot of confidence to start this collaboration.”Â
Through the project, the collaborators also organised the International Conference on Nanomaterials for Electro-Catalytic Technologies (I-CONECT 2023) at IIT Delhi, and the Virtual Conference on Sustainable (Photo)Electrochemical  Energy Devices for Green Fuels Production (GFuels2024) hosted at MyAV·¶. These conferences enabled more of their respective team members to get involved in discussions and workshops, and brought in viewpoints from other experts working in this field. The team is also working on a paper about the work they have done so far.
“This is a multidisciplinary project, and the combination of skillsets is very important,” Mojtaba said. “We’ve already created a technical innovation, and we’re keen to continue working together to see what else we can achieve.”