SUPERVAL Kicks Off Gathering Its International Consortium Partners at ICIQ

This project, funded by the European Union, will work towards mitigating the environmental impact of post-combustion emissions.

The SUPERVAL project, short for “SUstainable Photo-ElectRochemical VALorization of flue gases,” has just commenced a three-year effort to transform carbon and nitrogen emissions into valuable resources. The project officially began with the celebration of a kick-off meeting held at the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ-CERCA), Tarragona, on the 2nd and 3rd of November.

The two-day event was marked by an agenda that aimed to set the tone for the project’s research and development activities. The first day started with the welcoming words from the Institute’s Director, Prof. Emilio J. Palomares, and an in-depth introduction and overview of SUPERVAL’s objectives by Prof. J. R. Galán-Mascarós, ICIQ Group Leader and the project coordinator.

One of the meeting’s highlights was the presentation of all project partners and their roles. The consortium includes the following organizations: ICIQ as coordinator of the project, the ICIQ Spin-off Orchestra Scientific, Universitat Politècnica de València, INSTM – Consorzio Interuniversitario Nazionale per la Scienza e Tecnologia del Materiali, Forschungszentrum Julich, the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, VARESER and 2.-0 LCA Consultants.

Following their respective introductions, the meeting delved into the specifics of the project’s work packages. These segments are crucial to the project’s success, as they outline the strategies for addressing key challenges in capturing and transforming pollutants. The work packages cover a range of activities, from gas separation (WP1) to CO₂/water-photo-electrolysis (WP2), photocatalytic hydrogenation of N₂ and NOx to NH₃ (WP3), and device integration, SUPERVAL technology performance validation, and feasibility assessment (WP4).

The meeting also touched upon the upcoming agenda for the second day, where further work packages will be discussed, along with plans for dissemination, communication, and exploitation (WP5), project management (WP6), and portfolio activities (WP7). The project is aiming for an all-encompassing approach to address the environmental challenges associated with post-combustion emissions.

The project has been allocated €3.5 million in funding for the next 3 years by the European Union under the EIC Pathfinder Challenges 2022 call. The SUPERVAL project builds on the success of the A-LEAF project, which achieved the direct use of sunlight to transform waste carbon dioxide (CO₂) into valuable chemical fuels. SUPERVAL aims to optimize and expand upon this strategy, extending it to the capture of contaminants (CO₂ and NOₓ) from flue gas, with the goal of converting them into valuable commodities for the chemical industry. All these objectives will be achieved using renewable power sources from photovoltaics, setting the stage for a more sustainable future.

The SUstainable Photo-ElectRochemical VALorization of flue gases – SUPERVAL project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe, Grant Agreement No. 101115456