Renewables-Driven Production of Organic Acids from Industrial CO2 Waste Streams

In an ideal model, emitted CO2 could be used as a feedstock for producing carbon based solid products and chemicals, which are inherently valuable in the current economy; either as end-products or as intermediates for more valuable commodities. In addition to providing economic stimulus to the U.S. manufacturing industry, the displacement of traditional synthesis routes for these chemicals from fossil fuels helps secure U.S. energy supplies. Chemical products from the Sustainable Innovations’ Electrochemical Carboxylic Acid (ECA) Generation system, which are not based on petrochemicals, would be utilized as feedstock to important secondary chemical processes. This would lower the U.S. demand for foreign crude oil. U.S. natural gas and coal supplies could be utilized for energy production rather than commodity chemical production, reducing our reliance on imports. The intrinsic value of these products, combined with a low-cost method of producing them, transforms the economic equation in such a way that a societal problem becomes an opportunity. Electrochemical conversion of CO2 can generate a wide range of products including alcohols, alkanes, carboxylic acids and other hydrocarbons. Carboxylic acids are particularly interesting since they can be formed by breaking only one of the carbon-oxygen bonds within the CO2 molecule and are used extensively as chemical intermediates, food additives, tanning agents, dyeing compounds and even in fracking operations. The overarching goal of the Phase I effort is to develop and demonstrate a benchtop-scale, fully-integrated electrochemical system that provides a subscale building block for the creation of an economically feasible Electrochemical Carboxylic Acid generation system. Key objectives in that regard include developing an understanding of technology performance and durability through parametric and durability tests of baseline cell structures with performance goals that include Faradaic efficiencies of >90% in producing carboxylic acids at current densities >200 mA/cm2. The achievement of 200 hours of operation with <20% voltage degradation. Identify key electrocatalyst materials that contribute to high current density operation at high Faradaic efficiencies. Develop a conceptual design for a commercial system and demonstrate its viability through analysis.