February 2021 Meeting

Circular Carbonand Hydrogen Economy integrated with Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage

A.-H. Alissa Park

Lenfest Earth Institute Professorof Climate Change

Department of Earth andEnvironmental Engineering & Department of Chemical Engineering

Director of the Lenfest Center forSustainable Energy,

Columbia University, New York, NY10027

In order to meet theever-increasing global energy demands while stabilizing the atmospheric CO2level, the development of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)technologies is one of the critical needs. In particular, there has beensignificant efforts to develop CO2 capture solvents and some (e.g.,amine-based aqueous solvents) have shown very promising results. Unfortunately,the energy requirement for the current aqueous solvent systems is stillconsidered to be too high. Thus, efforts have been focused on the developmentof second and third-generation CO2 capture solvents which are oftenwater-free. Nanoparticle Organic Hybrid Materials (NOHMs)are a new class of organic-inorganic hybrids that consist of a hardnanoparticle core functionalized with a molecular organic corona that possessesa high degree of chemical and physical tunability. It has recently beendiscovered that NOHMs have interesting electrolyte properties which may allowthe CO2 capture to be pulled by the in-situ CO2conversion reactions. The development of these unique nanoscale hybridmaterials will not only advance CO2 capture materials design butalso introduce unique research opportunities in various energy andenvironmental fields. This seminar will discuss the challenges andopportunities of different CO2 capture and conversion pathwaysincluding Negative Emission Technologies that can allow the development ofcircular carbon and hydrogen economy using renewable energy.

Bio: Ah-Hyung (Alissa)Park is the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change in theDepartments of Earth and Environmental Engineering & Chemical Engineeringat Columbia University. She is also the Director of the Lenfest Center forSustainable Energy. Her research focuses on sustainable energy and materials conversionpathways with emphasis on integrated Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage(CCUS) technologies addressing climate change. Park group is also working on DirectAir Capture of CO2 and Negative Emission Technologies includingBioEnergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and sustainable constructionmaterials with low carbon intensity. Park received a number of professionalawards and honors including the Mid-Career Faculty Award at Columbia University(2020), U.S. C3E Research Award (2018), PSRI Lectureship Award in Fluidizationat American Institute of Chemical Engineers (2018), American Chemical SocietyEnergy and Fuels Division - Emerging Researcher Award (2018), InternationalPartnership Award for Young Scientists of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018), Janetteand Armen Avanessians Diversity Award at Columbia University (2017), AmericanChemical Society WCC Rising Star Award (2017), James Lee Young InvestigatorAward (2010) and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2009). Park alsoled a number of global and national discussions on CCUS including the MissionInnovation Workshop on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage in 2017 and theNational Petroleum Council CCUS Report in 2019. She is an elected Fellow of AAAS,ACS, and RSC.