Nom i cognoms / Name and surname
Bart Limburg
Afiliació / Affiliation
ICIQ
Programa de finançament europeu en que s’enmarca aquest projecte? / European funding programme in which this project is being carried out?
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Schemes
Títol del projecte / Project title
Carbon Dioxide as a Raw Material for the Production of Amino Acids
Número del projecte / Project number
889754
Breu explicació del projecte / Brief explanation of your project
Carbon dioxide is a waste gas that has been steadily emitted by our society through the burning of fossil fuels. This causes two problems: 1) at some point, the fossil fuels will run out, and we will be left without a source of energy. 2) the CO2 in the atmosphere contributes to global warming, causing climate change. Currently, there are no economically viable ways to recycle this gas, and close the ‘carbon cycle’. It is the job of chemists to invent new chemical conversions that can use this gas as a new raw material to make useful molecules. The ‘PHOTOCARBOX’ project aims to develop such a novel reaction. The difficulty lies in the stability of the CO2 molecule: it requires a lot of energy to react because the chemical bonds in it are very strong. To overcome this problem, PHOTOCARBOX will use the energy in light to activate CO2 through catalysis and transform it into amino acids, the building blocks of peptides and proteins. This new type of activation might lead to the discovery of many more such reactions and drive industry to view CO2 not only as a waste, but also as the starting material for the production of valuable compounds.
Enllaç a la pàgina web del projecte / Link to your project website
http://mscaprojects.iciq.es/projects/dr-bart-limburg/
Repte en que s’emmarca aquest projecte / Challenge within the framework of this project
5. Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials
