On August 21, 2025, one carbon engineer Florian Müller successfully defended his doctoral thesis in the presence of friends and colleagues. He is the second graduate of the CO₂Refinery doctoral program, which is dedicated to innovative research pathways for utilizing CO₂ in sustainable value chains.

His supervisors,Franz Winter andStefan Müller, praised his achievements and highlighted the scientific excellence of his work. Over the past four years, Florian Müller published several articles as first author and contributed to several others as co-author, making a significant impact on the international research community in the fields of CO₂ utilization and process engineering.

His dissertation, entitled CO₂ Utilization by Biomass Gasification: Experimental Investigations, Measurement Innovation, and Process Design for Carbon Recycling in Ironmaking, demonstrates how CO₂ can be converted into a valuable industrial resource. His research achieved CO₂ conversion rates of up to 93% in lab-scale gasifiers, introduced a novel isotope-based method for accurately validating CO₂ conversion, and proposed a plant design for ironmaking that integrates biomass CO₂ gasification in a closed CCU loop. Combining this concept with carbon sequestration enables net-negative emissions at competitive costs, offering a sustainable alternative to conventional natural gas-based processes.

With his successful defense, Florian Müller marks another milestone in the CO2Refinery doctoral school, showcasing both scientific expertise and practical solutions for a sustainable carbon economy. After graduating, Florian stayed at TU Wien and started a new position as a Senior Scientist at the Institute of Energy Systems and Thermodynamics, where he will continue working on smart solutions for the defossilization of industrial energy systems.