ERC Starting Grant for Jingxiu Xie

We are proud to announce that Jingxiu Xie from ENTEG has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for her groundbreaking proposal Intensified Processes for CO2 Conversion to Sustainable Synthetic Fuels. This highly competitive grant, valued at €1.5 million over five years, supports outstanding early-career researchers, encouraging pioneering research across Europe.

Summary of the Funded Proposal
In this project, Jingxiu Xie aims to develop intensified catalytic processes for converting CO2 to synthetic fuels. Synthetic fuels have the potential to serve as sustainable aviation fuels, making their successful production from CO2 a solution to two critical societal challenges and a significant step towards realizing a truly circular economy.

Traditionally, metallic cobalt catalysts are used in the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis technology to convert syngas (CO and H2) into synthetic fuels, but they produce primarily methane when applied to CO2. To address this, Xie proposes a novel concept called reactor zoning, which customizes the catalyst’s environment within the reactor. This approach contrasts with conventional methods that focus on tailoring catalyst materials and active sites, signifying a paradigm shift in catalysis, reactor engineering and process intensification research. Therewith, this will be the first demonstration of metallic cobalt catalysts ‘converting’ CO2 to synthetic fuels in a single reactor.

Sector Plan
Jingxiu Xie is a Rosalind Franklin Fellow. She was appointed to RUG with funding from the sector plan: a structural strategic investment programme in the Netherlands aimed at strengthening higher education and scientific research. The sector plans are designed to improve the quality of education and research and to promote cooperation between universities.