Founded in 1821, Heriot-Watt University has a rich heritage and is valued for its pioneering research informed by the global needs of business and industry.
The Research Centre for Carbon Solutions(RCCS) is an interdisciplinary world leading engineering centre, inspiring and delivering innovation for the wider deployment of technologies needed to meet necessary carbon targets.
Launched by Professor Mercedes Maroto-Valer (FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA) in 2008 with funding from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the Centre has grown to encompass 35 members of staff and students, having over 400 publications on carbon mitigation. The Centre has attracted more than £17m of funding since its establishment.
Development of novel materials and processes for CO2 capture; studies on wellbore integrity, mineral trapping, microfluidics and reactive transport for CO2 storage applications
CO2 utilisation proposes to use CO2 as a building block for the chemical industry, to in time replace fossil-based carbon as a feedstock. It is imperative that the CO2 conversion happens using renewable energy as much as possible. Therefore, at RCCS, we pioneer material synthesis and engineering methods for photocatalysis (conversion of CO2 under the influence of direct sunlight), electrocatalysis (conversion of CO2 using renewable electricity), and hydrogenation (conversion of CO2 with renewable hydrogen). The resulting products are typical building blocks for the chemical industry, such as carbonates, methanol, or carbon monoxide. We complement this cutting-edge engineering science with frontier system analysis methods, focussing on identifying trade-offs, hot spots and enablers of making CO2 utilisation “net-zero-CO2-emissions” over its entire life-cycle.