CSIC – Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

With more than 7,000 employees, Forschungszentrum Jülich is one of the largest interdisciplinary research centres in Europe and a member of the Helmholtz Association. As an open, responsible campus CSIC is the largest multidisciplinary public research organization in Spain, with 123 research institutes distributed throughout Spain, alongside a delegation in Brussels. In E-TANDEM, CSIC participates through the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ), a Joint Research Centre of CSIC and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), located in Valencia, Spain. ITQ is a Severo Ochoa Excellence Research Center in Spain which hosts ca. 35 staff scientists, more than 150 PhD and postdoctoral researchers and lab technicians. Research activities integrate the fields of materials science and catalysis through an integrated approach. Its staff conforms a highly qualified and multidisciplinary team of specialists in the design, synthesis, and development of innovative functional materials for chemical technologies, with focus on the sustainable production of energy vectors and platform chemicals. The research group “Catalysis Engineering for Sustainability” (https://catalysiseng.info/) specifically develops new catalyst materials and routes to valorise renewable and alternative feedstocks, such as CO₂, into platform chemicals and energy carriers.

CSIC’s research group Catalysis Engineering for Sustainability has contributed to proof-of-principle results and related intellectual property on new tandem-catalysis conversion routes enabling selective carbon-chain propagation from C₁ feedstocks (syngas derived from CO₂) specifically toward C₃ oxygenate compounds. These advances provide the foundation for the conversion concepts proposed in IsoPROPEL. This project will serve to refine these new conversion routes and integrate them with highly dynamic, fully electrified CO₂ reduction concepts to selectively upgrade CO₂ and green hydrogen feeds. Beyond further developing this emerging, proprietary technology, the project offers a distinctive opportunity to collaborate with academic and industrial partners whose expertise spans process simulation,  fuel-cell development, and inland waterways propulsion and transport, enabling a broad assessment of the new catalytic routes in the context of carbon-neutral energy carrier production. The project’s objectives are fully aligned with CSIC’s strategic research priorities in developing innovative catalytic materials and processes for the efficient production of energy vectors and platform chemicals with a minimal carbon footprint. Through coordinating IsoPROPEL and contributing to the project’s technical developments at lab scale, CSIC aims to demonstrate the technological relevance of its fundamental research in the critical context of the energy transition.

CSIC coordinates activities within IsoPROPEL. In addition to its coordination role, CSIC contributes to technical work focused on developing new materials and electrified catalytic processes to upgrade industrial waste CO₂ into condensed, oxygenated liquid organic hydrogen carriers. In close collaboration with project partners such as CNRS and FZJ, CSIC also supports the synthesis of innovative catalysts for direct alcohol fuel cells, translating computational predictions into experimental validation. Finally, CSIC serves as an interface between the implementation team and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership’s TRUST database, a structured repository through which funded projects report technology KPIs and performance data via standardised templates.