Go Green CO2 - exploration of paths for sustainable production of green platform chemicals

The proposed project represents a new approach to the chemical recycling of CO2 and CH4 to green platform chemicals (methanol, dimethyl ether or acetic acid). Simultaneous processing of CO2 and CH4 will be carried out over tailored counter metal ion/oxo (M = Fe, Zn, and Cu) structures supported over newly obtained (in the PI's group) Al–rich *BEA zeolites. In contrast to commonly used high-silica zeolites (Si/Al > 12), a high concentration of Al atoms in the Al-rich *BEA (Si/Al < 5) matrix offers the possibility of introducing a high population of metal ion extraframework centres, which are the active sites in the catalytic process. Moreover, to enable the simultaneous processing of CO2 and CH4, novel bimetallic Cu- Fe*BEA and Zn-Fe*BEA (Fe ions in the *BEA framework and Cu and Zn ions/oxo species as extra-framework species). This pioneering attempt will allow the development of an effective catalyst exhibiting the mutual cooperation of two metal cations for the simultaneous transformation of CO2 and CH4 to green platform chemicals.