Oxalic Acid From CO2 Using Electrochemistry At DemonstratioN Scale

THE GENERAL CONTEXT

Electrification of the chemical production is a major objective to use directly renewable energy in chemical processes, but demonstration of electrochemical processes to proof the industrial and economic feasibility, as well as the development of new advanced electrochemical methodologies is needed to overcome current challenges and create new applications for electrochemistry.

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 is also a key, 2nd generation technology to close the carbon cycle in energy-intensive industries. Also in this case it is necessary to 1)  provide a proof of the economic and industrial feasibility of the electrochemical technology to convert carbon dioxide, 2)  develop and demonstrate innovative electrochemical technologies to overcome current challenges in electrochemistry, and 3) integrate the electrochemical technologies into industrial operations.

 

OCEAN project approach

OCEAN project will address these three challenges.

Proof of industrial and economic feasibility, with the development up to TRL6 of  technology to electrochemically convert CO2 to formate (Demi cell).

Innovative electrochemical methodologies, by i) improving the efficiency of the Demo cell with improved tandem operations at the anodic site, ii) coupling the Demo cell (which produces conjugated bases as reduction products) with downstrean operations (electrochemical acidification with bipolar membranes) and iii) developing novel 3) novel electrode materials and catalysts along a novel pathway to produce valuable C2 products from CO2.

Integration into industrial operations, by exploring the full industrial value chain from C1 (formate) to C2 (oxalic acid, glycolic and glyoxylic acids, ethylene glycol), including aspects of new polymers from electrochemically produced monomers.

OCEAN project general structure

OCEAN is a four-year project, organized in three consecutive phases.

The first phase (first 2 years) of the project was dedicated to the development of new electrochemical technologies (electrically driven reactions to produce the require chemicals) as well as upscaling and optimization of the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide in an industrial context.

The second phase (third year) was devoted to the optimization, engineering, and manufacturing of the large-scale units.

The further period was dedicated to testing and demonstration/validation of the industrial feasible units, these tests were conducted in environmentally relevant conditions (TRL 6). That is, on-site in a power plant utilizing captured CO2 form the facility.

During the first period (first 18th months) seven of the WPs were active, except WP6 (LCA). A few tasks ended in the 1st period, but most of the tasks and all WPs were active in the 2nd reporting period. The activities were in good agreement with those planned, but with some delays related to general pandemic situation that limited most of the activities and caused delays. Except for some shift due to these aspects, no key issues were identified in the deliverables and milestones. These were achieved according to expectations with minor changes subjected to two amendments.

The duration of the actions of the OCEAN project were extended to 58 months.

The outcome of OCEAN provided a value proposition of glyoxylic acid with the many important insights. With these insights a business case can be expanded to other markets as time progresses, utilizing the same techniques applied to the OCEAN business case and market analysis. From electrode development, the focus on the sales of standard products implementing the versions made in OCEAN will be a standard. Also, the continuation of manufacturing of custom-tailored gas diffusion electrodes for various CO2 reduction applications is on-going. With the insights from OCEAN, identification of a better produced and cheaper gas diffusion electrodes to deliver to the market will be a future objective. The design of the stack and the design of the processing unit will be used in future R&D projects to further upscale electrochemical technology to market level and commercialisation. The stack design can also be used to investigate other processes for the CO2 electroreduction beyond the OCEAN project (i.e., CO2 reduction to C+ products).

The further exploitation of the CO2 conversion scaled in OCEAN is a key step in the market acceptance of electrochemical conversion of CO2 to chemicals.

As business cases change over time and positive reaction from experts in the field increase, another course, away from Glyoxylic acid as a main product, has been linked. Formic acid and CO2 to PLGA have been identified as the next value proposition. More customer traction has been made in the market of formic acid and plastics from polymers in business development as of today.

The new course of Avantium has been designed in such a way to build partnerships on the full OCEAN process of CO2 to plastics, i.e., PLGA as a final product. Glyoxylic acid is still a product that is presented to the public as a business proposition when Avantium is advertising in the market. There is some interest from the market, but it is slow moving as most of the glyoxylic acid is in cosmetics and food additives and health and safety of newly introduced products in this market is a key factor in acceptance but has a long lead time.

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project (For the final period, include the conclusions of the action)

Despite electrochemistry and electrosynthesis being known for decades, application of electrochemical synthesis in industry so far is limited. OCEAN will contribute to develop new advanced electrochemical methodologies to overcome current challenges and create new applications for electrochemistry.

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formate is currently one of the most developed, compared to other electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide. However, despite formic acid being a high valued product, the market is concentrated, small and mature. Therefore, OCEAN aims at integrating the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide by producing oxalic acid and high-value products made thereof.

We demonstrate in the project, by techno economic and LCA analyses, that it is necessary to address C2 products from CO2, rather than formate/formic acid to create strong business cases and thus make a significant step forward in bringing electrochemical technologies to the market, fully integrated in a chemical process.

This project will reduce the environmental impact of society (reducing its CO2 footprint) by enabling a change from fossil based and first-generation feedstocks to what is a limitless resource. Treating carbon dioxide as a resource instead of a waste product will have major ramifications.

If captured carbon dioxide is used to produce glycolic acid and oxalic acid and subsequently consumer products thereof, petroleum-based counterparts can be replaced in the market. The replacement of the petroleum-based counterpart with carbon dioxide-based intermediates can reduce the imports of crude oil and in general reduce the dependency on raw material imports.

These technologies offer new perspectives and close the carbon-cycle in energy-intensive industries.

The final period was devoted to scaling of the processing units.

The project ended in M58 with positive results from the field.

Operating the largest CO2 reduction cell at scale (0.2m2 and 1 meter in height) for 1040hours in the RWE facility, OCEAN has demonstrated the viability of CO2 reduction at scale. This allowed for the validation of the electrochemical technology at an industrial scale. Along with validation of CO2 to formate, the anodic reaction was also scaled (paired electrolysis) with positive conclusions regarding the overall efficiencies for the cell, 150%, and co-production ~400 hours at the scale describe above.

Scaling of the thermal formate was also assessed, and validation had begun, it was verified that the technology has industrial capability.

The Ocean Project develops a paired electrolysis process and we thus indicated a global efficiency of 150% deriving from the sum of the efficiency of the anode and the cathode reactions.