STTR Phase II: Earth-abundant catalyst for power-to-liquids chemical production at the kiloton scale

这一小型企业技术转让(STTR)第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是通过减少温室气体排放和对化石燃料的依赖来帮助减轻气候变化的环境负担。气候变化是一个紧迫的环境挑战，为了应对它，至关重要的是提供替代使用产生温室气体的化石燃料的方法。今天使用的几乎所有航空燃料都是从原油中提炼出来的，而原油是一种化石燃料。该项目提供了一种替代技术，仅使用从废物来源捕获的二氧化碳(CO2)、相对少量的水和可再生(例如太阳能和风能)电力来制造可持续航空燃料(SAF)。催化剂是生产这种SAF的过程中的关键组件之一，有助于产生燃料的化学反应更有效地发生。该项目将优化催化剂，以提高SAF的生产。STTR二期项目旨在通过开发和表征催化剂，利用先进的表征技术，如X射线衍射、X射线光电子能谱和电子显微镜，将二氧化碳(CO2)转化为可持续航空燃料中的碳氢化合物，从而显著提高SAF的产量。这一过程将使用催化剂作为光合作用的模拟物，将空气(作为二氧化碳来源)、水(作为氢源)和阳光(作为能源)转化为可持续的化学品和运输燃料。唯一的副产品是氧气和水。许多其他相关过程通常依赖于多个反应步骤来针对相同的产品。该项目开发了一系列新型专利催化剂，通过直接二氧化碳加氢工艺将二氧化碳一步转化为燃料和化学品，使产量甚至超过传统工艺(如费托工艺)的理论最大值。这一新工艺消除了对工艺能源需求、排放、资本和运营成本以及产品销售价格产生负面影响的额外中间步骤的需要。该项目的成功结果将使可持续航空燃料的生产和经济性得到显著改善。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project is to help lessen the environmental burden of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. Climate change is an urgent environmental challenge and to address it, it is essential to provide alternatives to the use of fossil fuels that generate greenhouse gases. Nearly all the jet fuel or aviation fuel in use today is made from crude oil, which is a fossil fuel. This project provides an alternative technology that makes sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using only carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from waste sources, relatively small volumes of water, and renewable (e.g., solar and wind) electricity. Catalysts are one of the key components of the process that is used to produce this SAF, helping the chemical reactions that produce the fuel occur more efficiently. This project will optimize the catalysts for improved production of SAF. This STTR Phase II project seeks to significantly improve SAF production by developing and characterizing catalysts that convert carbon dioxide (CO2) into the hydrocarbon constituents in sustainable aviation fuels using advanced characterization techniques such as x-ray diffraction, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and electron microscopy. The process will use catalysts as mimics for photosynthesis, taking air (as a CO2 source), water (as a hydrogen source) and sunlight (as an energy source) and converting them into sustainable chemicals and transportation fuels. The only by-products are oxygen and water. Many other related processes often rely on multiple reaction steps to target the same products. This project develops a novel family of proprietary catalysts to convert CO2 to fuels and chemicals in a single step via a direct CO2 hydrogenation process, enabling yields even greater than the theoretical maximum of legacy processes, such as Fischer-Tropsch. This new process eliminates the need for extra intermediate steps that negatively affect process energy demands, emissions, capital and operational cost, and product selling price. The successful outcome of the project will allow significant improvements in production and economics of sustainable aviation fuels.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.