SBIR Phase I: Capturing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) via water electrolysis

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The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be in the development of an economically viable process that can help mitigate and reverse climate change by pulling carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air and using it to make durable polymers used in items that surround us every day. There is increasing global pressure to end emissions-intensive, fossil fuel-based operations. However, society has a extensive infrastructure that uses hydrocarbon as fuels as well as in plastics and other polymers. The proposed system will be used to manufacture useful hydrocarbon materials using carbon dioxide captured from air and hydrogen split from water. This technology represents a new pathway for meeting global demand for hydrocarbons without relying on fossil fuels, which may result not only in reduced emissions but in a net draw-down of the “legacy CO2” in the atmosphere. This technology may create new jobs in the American economy, mostly outside the urban commercial centers.This SBIR project will develop a novel system that integrates CO2 direct air capture into a water electrolysis device so as to produce a stream of captured CO2 and green hydrogen (H2) from a single device with energy requirements not much higher than water electrolysis alone. The system relies on two primary innovations: 1) a water electrolysis process using a unique buffer solution and a novel reactor design that combines direct air contact with water electrolysis to simultaneously capture CO2 and produce H2 from water, and 2) a new hollow fiber membrane bioreactor that uses multiple layers of hydrogel-encapsulated organisms to convert the electrolysis reactor’s emissions into biogenic methane (also known as renewable natural gas or RNG), and eventually into more complex hydrocarbon molecules. The goal of this project is to optimize the performance of both the electrolysis reactor and the bioreactor in order to demonstrate an economically viable pathway for capturing ambient CO2 and “upcycling” it into RNG. While the initial upcycling target is RNG, the emissions from the electrolysis reactor are suitable for conversion into more complex hydrocarbons.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.