I-Corps: Chemical Manufacturing with a Solid Electrolyte Reactor

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/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。用于化学生产的常规方法消耗化石燃料作为能源和/或原料以产生期望的产物。昂贵的分离过程，如蒸馏，然后用于将这些化学品纯化为可用的商品，这占了化学工业能源消耗的很大一部分。该技术旨在使用可再生能源而不是化石燃料从空气中生产化学品，无需任何下游分离步骤。该技术的拟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。拟议的技术有可能脱碳，分解和分散碳捕获和化学制造，同时与现有方法相比还可以降低能耗和成本。这个I-Corps项目的基础是电化学技术的发展，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，含有杂质的液体被用来导电，使过程更有效。然而，这些杂质需要从最终产品中去除，这是昂贵的并且需要大量的能量。这使得电化学方法与不需要该纯化步骤的其他方法相比更昂贵。 该技术基于一种反应堆，该反应堆使用固体材料而不是液体来导电。这种设计减少了能量消耗并消除了对昂贵的纯化步骤的需要。因此，可以直接生产高质量的燃料和化学品，没有杂质。 使用该系统的结果已经证明了纯过氧化氢的生产，二氧化碳的有效捕获，以及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NSF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.