Lectures For Future: “Utilizing CO2 - from climate killer to new ressources?” by Wolfgang Schöfberger (EN)

Assoc. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schöfberger is a chemist at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU). Chemists around the world are looking for practical solutions to reduce the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The approach: The gas should be used as a resource and not as waste. However, using CO2 as a raw material and converting it into useful chemicals or fuels is extremely difficult due to the compound's molecular stability - known as the activation problem. This stability poses great challenges for attempts to activate or reactivate CO2.

The “Schoefberger Lab” at the Institute for Organic Chemistry at Johannes Kepler University has developed new catalysts that can efficiently convert CO2 into alcohols or organic acids. The scientific work on this was carried out as part of two projects, financed by the Austrian Science Fund FWF (FWF-P28167-N34 and FWF-P32045-NB), and has been published in the journals Nature Communications and Angewandte Chemie. The resulting products can be converted into a range of useful chemicals using existing technologies, providing an efficient way to use CO2. Instead of getting into the atmosphere, the converted CO2 can be reused in industry.

In this lecture you will learn from Prof. Wolfgang Schöfberger how to chemically activate CO2 and convert it into usable chemicals.

https://www.jku.at/en/institute-of-organic-chemistry/team/schoefberger-lab/