NSF-DFG Echem: Future Fuels and Chemicals from Electrocatalytic Upgrading: Advancing Kinetic Understanding using Operando Spectroscopic Approaches and Quantum Chemicial modeling

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This project’s focus is the electrocatalytic hydrogenation and deoxygenation (ECH) of fast pyrolysis (Py) bio-oils for the purpose of making chemical and hydrocarbon fuel precursors. The U.S.-German collaboration is between Prof.’s Christopher Saffron, James “Ned” Jackson, and Scott Calabrese Barton at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing, Michigan and Prof. Uwe Schröder at the Technische Universität Braunschweig (TUB) in Lower Saxony, Germany. Relevant activities include organic electrosynthesis, catalyst evaluation by in operando techniques, quantum chemical modeling, reaction engineering and reactor design leading to fundamental knowledge supporting system scale-up. With further development of this technology, making “finished” hydrocarbon fuels is possible, leading towards rural production of electrobiofuels. Electrobiofuels are fuels that couple the energy from two renewable routes: biomass and alternative electricity (e.g. wind and solar). Electrobiofuels are needed to reverse the negative impacts of climate change, as only systems like Py-ECH are designed to efficiently cycle the carbon in the 1.3 billion tons of plant biomass that could be annually harvested in the U.S. Intellectual Merit: Fast pyrolysis uses heat without oxygen to convert biomass into liquid bio-oil, solid biochar, and combustible gases. However, bio-oil’s corrosiveness and reactive instability limit its use in conventional fuel and chemical processes, so upgrading is needed to overcome these hurdles. ECH of bio-oil is a key upgrading technique to reduce its reactivity and corrosiveness and improve its compatibility with conventional manufacturing infrastructure. Previous research shows that carbon-carbon and carbon-oxygen double bonds, as well as de-localized pi bonds, are saturated during ECH. Further, these reactions occur under very mild reaction temperatures and pressures when compared to hydroprocessing. In this collaborative project between Michigan State University and Technische Universität Braunschweig, an advanced understanding of ECH reaction mechanisms will be gained through organic molecule electrocatalysis trials, in operando measurements, quantum chemical modeling, and kinetic model development. The new knowledge that is gained will be lead to improved reactor design and better de-risking of scale up for eventual commercialization of ECH as a bio-oil upgrading strategy.