About

Motivation

Over the past century, the use of fossil resources has enabled technological and industrial advancements that have led to transformative improvements to our standards of living. The legacy of these advancements, however, is the release of CO₂ into our atmosphere at a massive scale, impacting our climate and ecosystems. To mitigate these effects and transition to a society that is not reliant on limited fossil resources, we envision the use of CO₂ from air or point sources as a carbon feedstock. By recycling CO₂ into fuels, chemicals, or materials, we can achieve a circular carbon economy. Integration of CO₂ capture and conversion, or Reactive Capture of CO₂ (RCC), would vastly improve the overall efficiency and cost from CO₂ source-to-products. Forming valuable products from CO₂ also provides an economic incentive for carbon-neutral or negative processes.

About Us

The Center for Closing the Carbon Cycle (4C) is an Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science under Award Number DE-SC0023427. 4C is advancing the foundational science and defining key integration parameters for RCC. Much of the current scientific research in CO₂ capture or pure CO₂ conversion is not translatable for RCC processes. 4C is unique because it combines expertise on CO₂ capture and catalytic valorization in center-wide collaborations. 4C is establishing guidelines for CO₂ capture from dilute and dirty streams and defining how captured CO₂ can most effectively be utilized. The center’s ultimate goal is to advance the understanding of sorbents and catalysts so they can be co-designed to work cooperatively to achieve more active, efficient, and durable systems for RCC than if the two systems were pursued independently.

Scientific Impact Beyond 4C

4C is advancing our understanding of CO₂ sorption chemistry and expanding the library of molecular CO₂ sorbents for different applications. These results will accelerate our ability to selectively and rapidly capture CO₂ from air and other streams. The knowledge base will be broadly valuable for understanding how to capture CO₂ from air or any point source, which is becoming increasingly important with the drive for carbon neutral and net negative technology outside of RCC.

Controlling chemical microenvironments to enhance catalytic activity is a crucial area of current scientific interest. However, controlled chemical microenvironments have been explored largely in the context of catalytic reactions like CO₂ Reduction (CO₂R), oxygen evolution, and hydrogen evolution. 4C is exploring practical engineering challenges in complex interfacial electrolysis. These principles are broadly applicable to understanding the role of interfaces and chemical microenvironments in catalytic mechanisms.

Learn More About 4C: “Reactive Carbon Capture: The Solution for Closing the Carbon Cycle,” Frontiers in Energy Research Newsletter, Written by: Rowan Brower, 4C PhD candidate at UC Davis.