Services

CO₂ Circle Lab tests CO₂ recovery from the gas streams of industrial processes (e.g. refineries, cement, iron & steel production, natural gas processing, hydrogen production), power plants and biogas plants, and in future perspectives also from air (Direct Air Capture).

CO₂ Circle Lab allows to test and validate a wide variety of processes and uses for the valorisation of organic products / by-products with various purposes, as for example, energy production, through anaerobic fermentation, and extraction of compounds with high added value.

The services offered by the area can be detailed as follows:

• Optimisation of the process and pre-treatment of organic matrices to improve the extraction and purification yield of substances of interest for green chemistry such as sugars, lipids, antioxidants, solvents and biostimulants;
• Agri-food by-products and organic wastes anaerobic fermentation and evaluation of the energy production potential;
• Tests on outdoor photobioreactors for the cultivation and enhancement of microalgae.

Several value streams for the conversion of waste streams (CO₂ or organics in wastewater from industrial processes) to useful products can be outlined, in a circular economy approach, by exploiting renewable energy sources (like water and sunlight or renewably produced H₂).

The CO₂ Circle Lab test benches allow to study, to simulate and to validate models considering several aspects related to the RES: wind solar and geothermal sources. The main services could be summarized as follows:

• Testing of glycol-to-glycol heat pumps developed for single dwellings and small-scale users;
• Testing the thermal reduction of MeOx in a chemical looping process for the SNG production;
• Investigating on the receiver geometry for the energy production considering Stirling engines, ORC and Rankine systems, etc.;
• Investigating on the micro and mini turbine wind generation in urban areas;
• Testing wind generators for energy production through a PTO test bench equipped with a tensiometer.

Thanks to the laboratory equipment it is possible to study the behavior of hardware devices and equipment, management and control systems, protection systems, inserted with (power) hardware in the loop mode in the simulated working environment. It is also possible to study the impact of such devices on the power grid.

The services proposed are:

• Testing of electrical equipment in HIL and PHIL configuration, with possible recipients: device manufacturers, TSOs, DSOs, multi-utilities, producers, consumer associations;
• Training of operators, with possible recipients: DSOs, TSOs, private subjects;
• Didactics for external organizations, with possible recipients: public and private electrical operators.

CO₂ Circle Lab brings green biotech solutions for carbon recycling to market. The secret is microorganisms that turn the carbon in industrial exhaust gas into revenue products. The biotechnological solutions proposed include:

• Biobased production of business-to-business molecules valuable in green chemistry applications by exploiting the metabolic capabilities of photosynthetic organisms and curating the design, assembly and operation of the bioprocesses in market-oriented photobioreactors.
  Currently targeted markets include packaging, flavouring, cosmetics and personal care.
• Development of gas fermentation processes based on the metabolic features distinctive of acetogenic bacteria. This technology suitably integrates in cleantech processes for the production of biomolecules (mainly diols, alcohols, acids) for diverse applications, for instance in the energy, chemistry, and packaging sectors, starting from industrial waste streams and synthetic gas mixtures (hydrogen, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide).
• Development of novel solutions in the energetic sector exploiting the metabolic potential of hydrogenotrophic methanogenic archaea, which are able to use H2 for the reduction of CO2 to produce biological methane, as well as of aerobic methanotrophs and archaeal methanotrophs to develop chemical intermediates.

CO₂ Circle Lab emploies nanostructured materials and nanotechnologies in the fabrication of laboratory prototypes for energy harvesting and storage devices, also in flexible, wire-shaped or floating architectures for advanced and innovative applications. The principal subjects under development are: supercapacitors and hybrid devices for energy harvesting and storage. CO2 Circle Lab develops also solutions to integrate the previous prototypes with CO₂ electro-reduction reactors.

CO₂ Circle Lab enables the complete characterization of pre-industrial cells, modules and battery packs. The testing carried out consist in:

• Performing tests (cycleability, cycling life)
• Aging tests:
• Calendar aging
• Cycle aging

Calendar aging is influenced by the storage parameters, namely the temperature and the state of charge (SOC). The degradation during cycle aging depends on the operating parameters: temperature, state of charge (SOC), current amplitude and depth of discharge (DOD). For both, calendar and cycle aging, aging mechanisms are usually investigated by alternating electrochemical characterizations at a reference condition with storage or cycling periods at predefined conditions.

• Abuse safety tests: the scope of the abuse test is to evaluate the compliance to main safety standards applicable to automotive batteries: thermal runaway, over-charge/discharge, nail test, crush test.