In the project “Carbon Flows in the Energy Transition”, a methodology is developed to monitor and assess the energy and carbon flows in the energy system of Switzerland. As the flows of carbon, either in the form of released CO2 or stored in chemicals, are linked to the form and operation of the energy system, the design of the latter is crucial. Since the defossilization of the energy system is an important part to…
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Perovskite-derived Ni catalysts offer the remarkable benefit of redox stability that allows their regeneration after deactivation through poisoning or Ni particle growth. Here, the catalytic activity of LaFe0.8Ni0.2O3 towards CO2 methanation was improved by increasing Ni reducibility and segregation to the perovskite surface through partial substitution of La by Sr (La1-xSrxFe0.8Ni0.2O3-δ, 0 ≤ × ≤ 0.1). Temperature programmed reduction, X-ray diffraction…
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Roger Maneka is a Ph.D student at the Paul Scherrer Institute, in the Catalysis for Energy Group led by Prof. Dr. Kröcher, and Dr. Ferri. Her research is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and well within the scope of the SCCER BIOSWEET. She explains the motivation for her research: “We believe it is crucial to develop technologies today to enable tomorrow’s energy transition. This energy transition concerns land transportation among others. The primary…
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Every three years, the World Energy Council explores possible developments of the global energy system under different scenarios. Tom Kober, head of the Energy Economics Group at PSI and one of the lead authors of the study, explains what the individual projections mean and how global warming could be mitigated. Since 2010, the World Energy Council has been developing these World Energy Scenarios and publishing them every three years…
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Lignin is the most abundant aromatic polymer in nature and as such is an attractive source of aromatic molecules. Efficient lignin utilization will also likely play a key role in the economic success and sustainability of biomass valorization schemes. However, traditional strategies for lignin isolation and depolymerization suffer from repolymerization issues, which result in low yield of low molecular weight fragments…
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We studied and compared the hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) and depolymerization of aldehyde-stabilized lignin and 4-propylguaiacol (PG), a model lignin monomer. We demonstrated by liquid phase adsorption that PG HDO catalyzed by Ru/C can be achieved in isooctane but not in 1,4-dioxane due to competitive solvent binding to the active sites. Unfortunately, alkanes cannot be used as solvents for real lignin due to limited solubility…
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