Your Attractive Heading
What We
Do
Technology
In today’s ever-changing world, where sustainability and resource conservation are of utmost importance, finding innovative solutions to tackle environmental challenges has become essential. We aim at converting seawater bicarbonates and nitrates into widely used chemicals for agriculture, such as urea, and other carbon and nitrogen valuable feedstocks. By exploring new electrochemical reactions, we will develop an integrated and scalable prototype.
Discovery of new materials based on non-critical elements
We will design catalysts based on non-critical raw materials and we will explore new reaction mechanisms for nitrate and carbonate activation and coupling, to sustainably produce urea and high-value chemicals.
Direct co-electrolysis of CO2 and NOx from seawater
We want to achieve direct co-electrolysis of CO2 and nitrates from seawater, a process that has never been reported to date. Moreover, it will be implemented on-site and powered by renewable energy sources.
Scalable lab-prototype demonstration
We will deploy advanced computational models and precise assemblies of high-performance electrodes, demonstrating a scalable lab prototype suitable for the integrated remediation of polluted seawater into urea.
01
Goals
Challenges
Ocean restoration and capture & use of CO2
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Reduce and recycle the nitrogen losses & C – N integrated management
02
Organization
Work packages
- WP1 – Modelling and accelerated rational catalyst design
- WP2 – Synthesis and characterization
- WP3 – Carbon-Nitrogen coupling
- WP4 – Proof of concept: real streams
- WP6 – Project management
- WP5 – Dissemination, Communication and Exploitation
- WP7 – Portfolio
03
Dissemination
Publications
| Title | Journal | Date | DOI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationships among structure, composition, and selectivity in the electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate ions | Current Opinion in Electrochemistry | 10 January 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2025.101643 |
| Electrode–Electrolyte Engineering and In Situ Spectroscopy for Urea Electrosynthesis from Carbon Dioxide and Nitrate Co-Reduction | JACS Au | 3 April 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1021/jacsau.5c00065 |
| Carbon Efficient CO2 Interfaces in Acid through Ion Management Channels | ACS Energy Letters | 15 December 2025 | https://doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.5c02981 |
| Atomic Layer Deposition on Particulate Materials from 1988 through 2023: A Quantitative Review of Technologies, Materials, and Applications | Chemistry of Materials | 22 December 2025 | https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.5c01919 |
| What solar fuel technologies can learn from each other | Nature Reviews Clean Technology | 6 January 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s44359-025-00130-5 |
| Size-Dependent Oxidation of Copper Nanostructured Electrocatalysts Produced by Spark Ablation | ACS Electrochemistry | 18 May 2026 | https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acselectrochem.6c00062 |
| Oxygen Management in Ruthenium–Cerium Anode Facilitates Water Adsorption and Bubble Desorption for Oxygen Evolution at High Current Densities | ACS Catalysis | 26 September 2026 | https://pubs.acs.org/accacs/article/16/20/20038/5439390/Oxygen-Management-in-Ruthenium-Cerium-Anode |
| Selective Nitrate-to-Nitrite Electroreduction on Ag/Au Core-Shell Nanocubes | ACS Catalysis | 7 October 2026 | https://pubs.acs.org/accacs/article/16/20/20404/5445758/Selective-Nitrate-to-Nitrite-Electroreduction-on |
| Tuning the Selectivity of Glycerol Electrooxidation via Catalyst Composition and Operating Conditions | ChemSusChem | 27 October 2026 | https://doi.org/10.1002/cssc.71189 |