What is the place of carbon products (fuel and chemicals) in a carbon neutral energy system?
Abstract
The net zero 2050 strategy is now an emergency for the national policies of major countries. The coming decades will be marked by growing energy needs, the gradual depletion of fossil resources and the mandatory logic of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In this lecture, we will discuss the place of carbon products in a future carbon-neutral world, outlining their potential and importance the energy transition. The key research and technological needs to foster a carbon circular economy will be highlighted, within the context of the ongoing energy transition. Our vision emphasizes the essential roles of CO2 utilization and biomass conversion in forging low-carbon energy systems.
Bio
Thibault Cantat is a group leader at the Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in France. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 2007 at the Ecole Polytechnique, France. After a postdoctoral stay at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he started a research group focused on the activation and recycling of CO2, depolymerization of wood lignin and mechanistic investigations using experimental and computational chemistry, at CEA Saclay. For his contribution on CO2 chemistry, he was awarded the Grand Prix Scientifique of the Louis D. Foundation by the Institut de France (2013). He obtained a Starting Grant in 2013 and a Consolidator Grant in 2018 from the ERC. In parallel, he provides scientific advice to policy makers and was nominated panel member at the CCUS workshop for Mission Innovation. In 2017, he was an expert and co-author of a report on Carbon Capture and Utilization for the Scientific Advice Mechanism, SAPEA, commissioned by the European Commission. Since 2020, he is the Program Leader on the Carbon Circular Economy at CEA (incl. biofuels, Power-to-X and biomass conversion technologies).