Governance & Board

Il progetto SILCO nasce dalla cooperazione di tre gruppi di ricerca.

SILCO project has been designed and planned to address three targets of EU and Italian PNRR: climate change, by proposing new materials for CO2 capture and use (SDG13); affordable energy, by proposing CO2 transformation into hydrocarbon (SDG7), and responsible resources consumption, by proposing the development and application of waste-derived silica matrixes (SDG12), and particular attention is paid to the circularity of the proposed approach.

It is expected the development of Waste-derived Sorbent Matrixes (WSM) based on silica and/or modified silica having specific functionalization and porosity, suitable for highly efficient CO2 capture and storage and to be used as catalysts support for high yield and selective fuel production.

Other important aspects of SILCO relate to the study and set up of methodologies for the characterization and the evaluation of the sorbents and catalysts structure-performances relationship. The innovative concept of SILCO stands on set up of methodologies able to allow efficient waste management, including CO2, for waste reintroduction in the production cycle giving them new life and value.

Among others, SILCO applicative outputs can be:

  1. the application of new WSMs, not currently available on the market, in current technologies, and
  2. the possibility of implementing new technologies, dealing with recycling processes, yet not applied at industrial level.

SILCO ambitious long-term vision may be seminal for new technologies able to generate important work opportunities. Environmental implications of the reuse and recycling of silica residues are beneficial regarding raw material, resources, cost, and reduction in landfills. Even more impacting positive effects will be reached by considering CO2 recovery and valorization. Global warming is considered one of the significant challenges of the twenty-first century, and CO2 capture as well; thus, storage technologies are attracting large interest in reducing the ever-increasing amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere and its impact on global climate change. Developing a robust catalyst for the selective reduction of CO2 directly into hydrocarbon fuels is very challenging from both energy and environmental perspectives as it offers a renewable and green route for the production of fuels. The production of synthetic natural gas from CO2 employing a methanation reaction is thus a promising carbon capture and utilization technology that results in carbon recycling.

 

Governance & Board

The governance system of the SILCO project has been defined and approved in line with what is reported and detailed in the description of the SILCO project (P2022SZANL).

The Research Units involved in the SILCO project are:

  • Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI): Dept. of Chemistry, Materials and Chemical Engineering “Giulio Natta” (CMIC) and Dept. of Energy (DENG). POLIMI is mainly involved in the follow activities: coordination; preparation and testing of catalysts;
  • Università di Milano Bicocca (UNIMIB): Dept. of Materials Science (DSM). UNIMIB is mainly involved in the follow activities: preparation and characterization of functionalized materials;
  • Università di Genova (UNIGE): Dept. of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering (DICCA), Polytechnic School. UNIGE is mainly involved in the follow activities: spectroscopic characterization of materials and surface properties.

 

The organization of board is the following:

  • Unit managers:
    • prof.ssa Cinzia Cristiani – POLIMI; Project Coordinator (Principal Investigator, PI) and Unit Manager. Activities: Coordination, and administrative management; function of planning and conducting the experimental activity
    • prof.ssa Elisabetta Finocchio – UNIGE; Project Co-cordinator (Substitute Principal Investigator, Co-PI) and Unit Manager. Activities: Coordination, and administrative management; function of planning and conducting the experimental activity
    • prof. Roberto Scotti – UNIMIB; Unit Manager. Activities: Function of planning and conducting the experimental activity
    • dott.ssa Corinne Gandelli; Staff of the PI for governance, coordination and administrative reporting
  • Permanent research participants:
    • prof.ssa Lidia Castoldi – POLIMI. Activities: Function of planning and conducting the experimental activity; website design.
    • prof. Luca Lietti – POLIMI. Activities: Function of planning and conducting the experimental activity.
    • prof.ssa Barbara Di Credico – UNIMIB. Activities: Function of planning and conducting the experimental activity; website design.

To carry out the project, Milestone are assigned to the Research Unit as detailed in the dedicated web site page (link).

The evaluation of the degree of progress of the activities and the planning of the activities are carried out through periodic meetings and internal reports as defined in the project description. Furthermore, it will be the participants' responsibility to include people external to the project as experts and/or stakeholders in the discussion and planning phases, where required.