Sustainable Innovations, LLC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 09a

Description

In an ideal model, emitted CO2 could be used as a feedstock for producing carbon based solid products and chemicals products and intermediaries. In addition to providing economic stimulus to the U.S. manufacturing industry, the displacement of traditional synthesis routes for these chemicals from fossil fuels would help to secure U.S. energy supplies. Chemical products from the Skyre’s Electrochemical Carboxylic Acid (ECA) Generation system, which are not based on petrochemicals, would be utilized as feedstocks to important secondary chemical processes, lowering the U.S. demand for foreign crude oil. 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. Skyre has proven that it has the basis for a commercially viable system to convert CO2 to organics, namely valuable carboxylic acids. Improvements in catalyst loadings and cell design during the Phase I program has resulted in high Faradaic efficiency, a maximum of 94%. Future cell and stack design optimization has been identified that will allow lower voltage and higher current density operation that will in turn yield commercial CO2 system organics product costs. In the proposed DOE Phase II effort, Skyre will continue the development of electrocatalysts for enhanced performance, make cell design improvements, scale up the laboratory benchtop system for demonstration. Key objectives include: Performance and durability testing to demonstrate Faradaic efficiencies of >90% in producing carboxylic acids and 1,000 hours of operation with <20% voltage degradation; Investigation of the key parameters which may yield higher hydrocarbons (C3 or larger); Scale-up of the cell active area from 81 cm2 to 200 cm2; Demonstration of a prototype system having the capacity of 1 kg/day using industrial effluent CO2 and power from renewables; Development of a conceptual design for a commercial system. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: CO2 emissions reduction from power plants and industrial processes; production of chemicals, fuels and solid (polymeric) products; grid scale energy storage.