Call research programme CO2-neutral fuels open
The NWO theme Sustainable Energy has initiated a national multidisciplinary scientific programme in the field of clean CO2-neutral fuel production from H2O and CO2. This programme is embedded in the NWO proposition for the Dutch Topsector Energy 2012-2013. From the total projected budget of M€ 9, NWO, FOM and Shell have allocated M€ 5 towards this open call CO2-neutral fuels, to fund innovative research within the context of four research themes. The deadline for submissions is 31 May 2013.
There is a strong need to produce CO2-neutral fuels from sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind, to alleviate the intermittent character of these sustainable energy sources by storing the energy in fuels and to mitigate the detrimental climate effect of the globally increasing CO2 levels. Therefore, NWO is soliciting excellent proposals that fulfill the fundamental research need for innovation towards a CO2-neutral energy system.
The four research themes of this open call are:
1. Photocatalytic approaches for CO2-neutral fuels: functional inorganic semiconductor materials.
2. Responsive matrices for CO2-neutral production of solar fuels.
3. Out-of-equilibrium processing of solar fuels.
4. Process and reactor development for the downstream synthesis of fuels or chemicals.
Another call fully aligned within the overarching programme but with a narrower research scope has an allocated budget of M€ 2, provided by Technology Foundation STW and Alliander. This call will be open before July, 2013. The remaining M€ 2 will be utilized for a start up program on Solar Fuels by DIFFER.
Society and the global economy depend heavily on a fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure. Spurred by worries about climate change, Europe is implementing increasingly stricter limits on CO2 emissions. The Netherlands are still far from fulfilling the 20/20/20 requirements as set by the EU to be reached in 2020.
The overarching NWO programme that aims to address these issues was initiated in accordance with the research agenda of the Top consortium for Knowledge and Innovation (TKI) Gas (theme Power2gas/Gas2energy) which forms part of the Topsector Energy, and has a duration of six years with a projected total budget of M€ 9. This budget is brought together by the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM), NWO Chemical Sciences, the General Board of NWO, and industrial partners Shell and Alliander. FOM Institute for Fundamental Energy Research (DIFFER) will coordinate this programme.
This programme was conceived in a joint-programming process, in which academic and industrial representatives cooperated in writing a theme text. The framework for the programme was further defined during an extensive workshop in which industrial and scientific parties discussed various aspects of the initial theme text, leading to the final version.
Further information
Further information, including the manual and theme text, can be found on the FOM webpage Call for proposals CO2 neutral fuels.