In order to meet the ever-increasing global energy demands while addressing climate change, the development of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies is one of the critical needs. In particular, there has been significant efforts to develop innovative CO2 capture materials and CO2 conversion technologies to create a new circular carbon economy based on renewable energy. The next generation CO2 capture materials, which are often water-free or water-lean, have unique structural and chemical properties that allow their applications in a wide range of reactive separation systems.
Nanoparticle Organic Hybrid Materials (NOHMs) are organic-inorganic hybrids that consist of a hard nanoparticle core functionalized with a molecular organic corona that possesses a high degree of chemical and physical tunability. It has recently been discovered that NOHMs have interesting electrolyte properties which may allow the CO2 capture to be pulled by the in-situ CO2 conversion reactions. The development of these unique nanoscale hybrid materials will not only advance CO2 capture materials design but also introduce unique research opportunities in various sustainable energy and environmental fields. This seminar will discuss the challenges and opportunities of different CO2 capture and conversion pathways including Negative Emission Technologies (e.g., Direct Air Capture) that can allow the development of circular carbon and hydrogen economy using renewable energy.
Ah-Hyung (Alissa) Park is the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change in the Departments of Earth and Environmental Engineering & Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. She is also the Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy. Her research focuses on sustainable energy and materials conversion pathways with emphasis on integrated Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies. Park received a number of professional awards and honors including the Shell Thomas Baron Award in Fluid-Particle Systems at AIChE PTF (2022), ACS ENFL Mid-Career Researcher Award (2022), U.S. C3E Research Award (2018), PSRI Lectureship Award at AIChE PTF (2018), and NSF CAREER Award (2009). Park also led a number of global and national discussions on CCUS including the Mission Innovation Workshop in 2017. Park is a Fellow of AIChE, ACS, RSC and AAAS.