Abstract
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that results, in part, from human activities and causes global warming and climate change. According to the International Energy Agency, global CO2 emissions from fossil-fuel combustion reached a record high of 31.3 gigatonnes in 2011. The concept of the methanol economy, advocated by Nobel laureate Prof. George A. Olah back in the 1990s, hinges on the chemical recycling of CO2 to methanol and derived, suggesting methanol as a key substitute fuel and starting material for valuable chemicals. The recycling conversion of CO2 could be a rational way to develop an anthropogenic short-term carbon cycle. With this aim, The design of functional porous architectures depicting hierarchical and interconnected pore networks has emerged as a challenging field of research. Particularly, porous monoliths offer many advantages and can be employed as flow-through reactors for separation, catalysis and biocatalysis. This study focuses on the design of monoliths with hierarchical porosity and high surface area. Firstly, silica monoliths with both homogeneous macro- and mesopores were prepared using sol-gel chemistry and spinodal decomposition using PEO polymers. Macropore (up to 30 microns) and mesopore (up to 20 nm) diameters of the monoliths were controlled by modifying various experimental parameters (PEO molecular weight, addition of surfactants, different basic post-treatments, different temperatures, etc.). Secondly, carbonaceous replica have been prepared through hydrothermal carbonization of sucrose, subsequent pyrolysis and silica etching. These materials present large interconnected flow-trough macropores, a bimodal mesoporosity, a high surface area (up to 1400 m2 g-1) and high meso- and macropore volumes.Different enzymes were immobilized onto the monoliths amongst which formate dehydrogenases. Flow-through reactors were engineered and continuous flow biocatalysis was performed. In such systems, straightforward processes for the in situ regeneration of the enzyme cofactor, i.e. 1,4-NADH wrer developped. Flow-through reactors and their use for the enzymatic reduction of carbon dioxide into formate were designed.