Speaker:Volker Sick

Title:Why and how to use carbon dioxide to make products

Abstract:Taking carbon dioxide as a resource, a feedstock for essential products is a game changer for sustainable economies. CO2-based products will become key elements of growing local and global economies. Growing demands for food, household and industrial chemicals, energy carriers, construction materials, and much more cannot be met with biomass and traditional recycling alone. The carbon from CO2 becomes the third leg of the carbon sources stool and technology readiness of suitable conversion technologies has reached critical levels for deployments. This talk will examine the global opportunities for CO2 utilization and provides projections for new $trillion industries.

About the Speaker:Volker Sick, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Mechanical Engineering; DTE Energy Professor of Advanced Energy Research; Director of the Global CO2 Initiative; Faculty Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship. He works on CO2-utilization for carbon management and fossil-free carbon products. Additionally, he develops optical diagnosis methods for diseases of the human eye. He earned his Doctorate in Chemistry (1992) and Habilitation in Physical Chemistry (1997) from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.