CO2 reduction, H2 production, and biomass upgrading through one single electrochemical system: from bench to commercialization

电化学CO2还原反应（CO2 RR）是将CO2转化为高附加值产品和遏制全球变暖的一种有前途的解决方案。从水中电化学生产和利用绿色氢是加拿大正在推行的替代化石燃料的另一项战略。这些方法特别令人感兴趣，因为它们能够实现急需的间歇性可再生能源储存，同时加速温室气体排放的净减少。已经投入了大量的努力来推进从CO2 RR生产不同化学原料的前景和提高析氢反应（HER）的效率。然而，CO2 RR技术尚未从实验室转移到商业化阶段，HER相对于基于化石燃料的H2生产工艺在经济上也不可行;主要是因为能源效率低。在常规电解槽中，H2在阴极产生（CO2 RR的竞争反应）并与阳极的析氧反应（OER）结合。OER本身并不增加有价值的产品。然而，在这个项目中，我们采用了一种新的方法，通过将醛转化为有价值的酸，在阳极从生物废弃物电氧化产生H2，同时在阴极与CO2 RR偶联。生物废弃物氧化比OER更容易，因此，用于还原CO2、产生H2和升级生物废弃物的统一电化学系统的能量效率将显著提高。通过与工业和政府合作伙伴以及决策者（ElectroCarbon，CERT，NRCan）合作，我们采用多方面的技术转让方法，将这一新颖的想法从实验室推向商业化。这个合作团队将使我们能够扩大技术规模，进行经济评估，评估生命周期和模拟温室气体排放，并考虑业务发展。我们的科学团队从加拿大几个主要机构中选出，将带来各种协同的专业知识，以推进知识，提高电化学系统的性能，并将结果转化为具有经济竞争力的系统。

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a promising solution to convert CO2 into value-added products and curb the global warming. Electrochemical production and utilization of green hydrogen from water is another strategy that Canada is pursuing to replace fossil fuels. These approaches are of particular interest as they enable the urgently needed storage of intermittent renewable energy while accelerating a net reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Much effort has been devoted to advance the prospects of producing different chemical feedstocks from CO2RR and to improve the efficiency of the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Nevertheless, neither CO2RR technology is yet to be transferred from lab benches to the commercialization stage, nor HER is economically viable relative to fossil fuel-based H2 production processes; mostly because of low energy efficiency. H2, in conventional electrolyzers, is produced at cathode (a competing reaction for the CO2RR) and coupled with the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at anode. The OER itself does not add valuable products. In this project, however, we follow a novel approach to produce H2 at anode from biowastes electro-oxidation, via aldehydes conversion into valuable acids, while it is coupled with the CO2RR at cathode. Biowaste oxidation is easier than the OER, thus, the energy efficiency of the unified electrochemical system to reduce CO2, produce H2, and upgrade biowastes, will considerably improve. In collaboration with industrial and governmental partners and decision makers (ElectroCarbon, CERT, NRCan), we adopt a multifaceted technology transfer approach to bring this novel idea from bench to commercialization. This collaborative team will enable us to scale-up the technology, perform economic evaluation, assess the life cycle and model GHG emissions, and consider business development. Our scientific team chosen from several key institutions across Canada will bring a synergistic variety of expertise to advance the knowledge, improve the performance of the electrochemical system, and translate the results to an economically competitive system.