On 16 May 2025, the ZeroCarb project hosted its official kick-off meeting at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). This marked the beginning of our collaborative journey to develop an innovative intermediate-temperature catalytic methane splitting (IT-CMS) reactor. The meeting provided a comprehensive introduction to the project’s goals, partners, and planned activities.
The gathering began with introductions of the project partners, including:
- FEUP (Universidade do Porto) – project coordinator, leading research and development efforts.
- HyCarb (Portugal) – a Portuguese SME contributing industrial expertise.
- CSIC (Spain) – the Spanish National Research Council bringing cutting-edge scientific capabilities.
- CapWatt (Portugal) – industrial partner focusing on hydrogen exploitation.
- Bedimensional (Italy) – specialized in high-purity carbon applications.
Attendees then explored the project’s objectives, centered on developing, optimizing, and operating the IT-CMS reactor at Technology Readiness Level 6 (TRL 6), using biomethane and green electricity. The demonstration unit aims to produce 2 kg/h of hydrogen and 6 kg/h of graphitic carbon, offering a low-CO₂ and cost-effective method for clean hydrogen and value-added carbon production.
The meeting also covered key structural components of the project:
- Work Packages (WPs) – defining the organization and division of tasks across research, demonstration, technical development, and dissemination.
- Deliverables, Milestones, and Reporting – detailing expected outputs, timelines, and communication checkpoints to ensure project tracking and compliance.
This clear structure offers strong foundations for achieving project goals, such as demonstrating the feasibility of the IT-CMS reactor and validating its business model through industrial partners CapWatt and Bedimensional.
