Kyriakou partner in ECOLEFINS EIC Pathfinder project

As a major contributor to the global CO2 emissions, the commodity chemical industry should be urgently coupled with renewable electricity to become independent from fossil fuel resources. ECOLEFINS aims to establish a new, all-electric paradigm for the electro-conversion of CO2 and H2O to light olefins; the key-intermediates for polymers, and other daily life chemical products. The project will introduce co-ionic ceramic membrane reactors while putting forward cutting-edge nanotechnology and engineering for the development of efficient electrodes and short-stacks in order to deliver RES-powered artificial photosynthesis of CO2 to valuable chemicals. This highly multi-disciplinary task synergies from the diverse fields of advanced materials science, electrochemical engineering, heterogeneous catalysis, multi-scale modelling, as well as sustainability assessment and marketization planning. ECOLEFINS is bringing together several partners across the EU, such as CERTH (GR), University of Groningen (NL), Juelich (GER), University of St. Andrews (UK) and Politecnico di Torino (ITA), with significant industrial involvement from ELCOGEN (FIN) and Hellenic Energy (GR).

The consortium received approximately 3M EURO of which 460.000 will go to Vassilis Kyriakou to primarily develop multifunctional and reversible electrocatalysts for the electrochemical reactors.

EIC Pathfinder
The poject Ecolefins was funded is in the context of EIC Pathfinder challenge 2022. With its Pathfinder programme the European Innovation Council (EIC) supports the exploration of bold ideas for radically new technologies. It welcomes the high-risk / high gain and interdisciplinary cutting-edge science collaborations that underpin technological breakthroughs. It is highly competitive with around 5% success rate.