I-Corps: Chemical Manufacturing with a Solid Electrolyte Reactor

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一种电气化反应堆，用于仅使用空气、水和可再生电力生产高纯度化学品。传统的化学生产方法消耗化石燃料作为能源和/或原料，以产生所需的产品。然后使用昂贵的分离过程，如蒸馏，将这些化学品净化成可用的商品，这占化学工业能源消耗的很大一部分。拟议中的技术旨在利用可再生能源，而不是化石燃料，从空气中生产化学物质，不需要任何下游分离步骤。该技术的建议应用领域包括碳捕获、直接空气捕获以及合成气、甲酸、乙酸、乙醇和过氧化氢的生产。与现有方法相比，该技术具有脱碳、电气化和分散碳捕获和化学制造的潜力，同时还可以降低能耗和成本。这个I-Corps项目是基于电化学技术的发展，作为一种生产化学品和捕获二氧化碳的方法。在传统的用电生产化学品的方法中，使用含有杂质的液体来导电，使过程更有效率。然而，这些杂质需要从最终产品中去除，这是昂贵的，需要大量的能源。这使得电化学方法比其他不需要这个净化步骤的方法更昂贵。这项提议的技术是基于一种使用固体材料而不是液体来导电的反应堆。这种设计降低了能源消耗，消除了昂贵的净化步骤的需要。因此，有可能直接生产高质量的燃料和化学品，而不含杂质。使用该系统的结果证明了生产纯过氧化氢，有效捕获二氧化碳，并将二氧化碳转化为化学品和燃料，如甲酸和乙酸。此外，反应器的紧凑性和模块化允许大规模的化学品本地生产，这可以避免长距离运输化学品的成本和安全问题。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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 I-Corps project is the development of an electrified reactor used to produce high-purity chemicals using only air, water, and renewable electricity. Conventional methods for chemical production consume fossil fuels as an energy source and/or feedstock to generate desired products. Costly separation processes such as distillation are then used to purify those chemicals into usable commodities, which accounts for a large portion of energy consumption in the chemical industry. The proposed technology is designed to produce chemicals from air using renewable energy, not fossil fuels, without any downstream separation steps. The proposed applications of this technology are in the areas of carbon capture, direct air capture, and the production of syngas, formic acid, acetic acid, ethanol, and hydrogen peroxide. The proposed technology has the potential to decarbonize, electrify, and decentralize carbon capture and chemical manufacturing, while also reducing energy consumption and cost compared to existing methods. This I-Corps project is based on the development of electrochemical technology as a way to produce chemicals and capture carbon dioxide. In the traditional method of using electricity to produce chemicals, a liquid with impurities is used to conduct electricity and make the process more efficient. However, these impurities need to be removed from the final product, which is expensive and requires significant energy. This makes the electrochemical method more expensive compared to other methods that do not require this purification step. The proposed technology is based on a reactor that uses a solid material to conduct electricity instead of a liquid. This design reduces energy consumption and eliminates the need for the costly purification step. As a result, it is possible to produce high-quality fuels and chemicals directly, without impurities. Results using this system have demonstrated the production of pure hydrogen peroxide, effective capture of carbon dioxide, and conversion of carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels such as formic acid and acetic acid. Additionally, the compactness and modularity of the reactor allows for the wide-scale local production of chemicals, which can avoid the costs and safety concerns of shipping chemicals over long distances.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.