Over the following decades, a drastic improvement in the circularity of the chemical industry will be required. This provides unseen opportunities for developing intensified chemical processes to valorize renewable feedstocks. Dual functional materials (DFMs), in which a catalyst is combined with a CO₂ sorbent, have emerged as materials of interest for intensifying CO₂ capture and utilization (CCU) processes through integrated CCU (ICCU). In a two-step process, the dual functional material first captures CO₂ to catalytically convert the captured CO₂ using a reductant in the second step. In this work, the performance of Ni-CaO-CeO₂ DFMs is explored for ICCU with formation of CO and/or CH₄  at 948 – 1023 K. Methanation is found to consume a considerable amount of hydrogen when operating at 948 K and industrially relevant H₂ concentrations, while CO formation dominates at 1023 K. Particular attention is given to the impact of impurities in real feedstocks, specifically the presence of O₂ and H₂O in flue gases, and how they affect process performance. Finally, a data-driven approach allows us to garner insight into DFM property-performance relationships.

Lukas Buelens obtained his chemical engineering degree in 2014 at Ghent University. He next pursued his doctoral research at the same university, focusing on the development functional materials for super-dry reforming, at the Laboratory for Chemical Technology (LCT) under supervision by Prof. Vladimir Galvita and Prof. Guy Marin. After obtaining his doctoral degree in 2018, Lukas worked as an innovation consultant at Ayming before returning to the LCT early 2020. Since then, he has been working with Prof. Vladimir Galvita and Prof. Kevin Van Geem as a postdoctoral researcher with a primary research focus on upscaling CCU functional materials and process technologies from lab to pilot scale.