Energy is the foundation of our Western economy. And the transition to renewable sources is a central process for our future ». Fabrizio Pirri, professor of the Polytechnic of Turin and Director of IIT – the Center for Sustainable Future Technologies (CSFT), in the Environment Park of Turin tells us about it. The Center carries out research based on sustainability which has, as one of its main objectives, the reduction of carbon dioxide of anthropogenic origin and the increase in the efficiency of alternative energies and the use of raw materials.
What are the themes that the Center addresses?
«The Center deals with technologies for the energy transition and specifically addresses three issues which are the reduction of CO2, hydrogen and energy storage. A project that was born in 2016, when there began to be awareness of the need to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into the environment. Since the production of CO2 is enormous, the problem to be solved is how to capture that emitted and transform it. Then the issue of new fuels such as hydrogen and other fuels that can derive from the use of CO2 was added to CO2. Therefore, to respond to the ever growing demand for sustainable technologies, the center has two lines of research under its belt that experiment with alternative routes, creating complementary and converging solutions ».
Which ones are they?
«On the one hand, the development of innovative materials for carbon sequestration and storage. On the other hand, the development of biological processes for the transformation of carbon into products of high value and of daily use. The new paradigm is to overturn the previous concepts of industrial production, transport and energy production, based on the exploitation of oil, coal and natural gas, in favor of new concepts applied to production processes, with the exploitation of renewable energy sources and industrial, urban and automotive waste, now considered, after purification, as valuable raw materials. In this scenario, the valorisation of CO2, through its electrochemical or thermochemical reduction, will lead to a double benefit: the reduction of the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere and the production of chemicals and fuels that are normally obtained as derivatives from fossil resources ” .
How many researchers work in the Center?
«The Center depends on the Italian Institute of Technologies and has about 60 researchers with an average age of 30. There is a close collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin, in fact we have about 3000 square meters of laboratories of which about 2000 are co-managed with the University and our 60 researchers are joined by another 50 from the Polytechnic ». C.L