Rebecca Rovai
Department / Institute
RESEARCH PROFILE
In the context of concerning increase of greenhouse gases emissions related to human activities, the removal of CO2 from industrial flue gases represents an important strategy to help a wide range of industries to become carbon neutral or even carbon negative by 2050, as expected by EU regulations. The ECCSTAZE project has the aim of developing a circular, sustainable and green CO2 capture process that only uses electricity as energy input, and an aqueous hydroxide solution, in situ produced in a membrane, as solvent. This innovative approach targets to reach over 99% carbon capure, against the current 90-95% efficiency of amine-based CO2 adsorption method.
The primary focus of the project is the creation of a bipolar membrane to be used in an electrodialysis unit. This involves the use of green solvents in membrane fabrication through electrospinning technique and creating an interfacial layer containing a catalyst using the Layer-by-Layer assembly coating technique. Subsequently, the project focus will shift to evaluating the membrane and stack performance, conducting life cycle assessement (LCA), and modelling the process for scale-up and engineering purposes.
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Rebecca Rovai joined the Membrane Material and Processes Group in the Chemical Engineering and Chemistry Department at Eindhoven University of Technology on April 8th, 2024 as a doctoral candidate. She received her BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pisa in November 2021, studying the pyrometallurgic process used to recover precious metals from ion lithium batteries. She attended her MSc studies at Politecnico di Milano, where she graduated in Chemical Engineering in December 2023. As MSc thesis work, conducted at the university Laboratory of Catalysis and Catalytic Processes, she investigated the role of Carbon Formation over an inorganic catalyst and its effect on the kinetics of Methane Dry Reforming reaction. During her MSc thesis work, she had the opportunity of participating in an experimental campaign to the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF, Grenoble) working with operando-XRD technique.
During her PhD studies she will work on the development of a green and fully sustainable bipolar membrane tailored for an EM regeneration unit to be integrated into a circular CO2 capture process within the ECCSTAZE project.
Ancillary Activities
No ancillary activities