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

电化学二氧化碳还原反应(CO2RR)是一种将二氧化碳转化为增值产品、遏制全球变暖的有前景的解决方案。从水中电化学生产和利用绿色氢气是加拿大正在推行的另一项取代化石燃料的战略。这些办法特别令人感兴趣，因为它们能够储存急需的间歇性可再生能源，同时加快温室气体(温室气体)排放量的净减少。人们一直致力于推进由CO2RR生产不同化学原料的前景，并提高析氢反应(HER)的效率。然而，无论是CO2RR技术还没有从实验室转移到商业化阶段，HER也不是经济上可行的基于化石燃料的氢气生产过程；主要是因为能源效率较低。在传统的电解槽中，氢是在阴极(与CO2RR竞争的反应)中产生的，并与阳极的析氧反应(OER)相耦合。OER本身不会增加有价值的产品。然而，在这个项目中，我们遵循了一种新的方法，通过将醛转化为有价值的酸，在阳极上从生物废弃物的电氧化中生产氢气，同时在阴极上与CO2RR偶合。生物垃圾的氧化比OER更容易，因此，统一的电化学系统在减少二氧化碳、产生氢气和升级生物垃圾方面的能效将大大提高。通过与工业和政府合作伙伴以及决策者(电子碳、CERT、NRCan)的合作，我们采用了多方面的技术转移方法，将这一新想法从BASE转化为商业化。这个协作团队将使我们能够扩大技术规模，执行经济评估，评估生命周期和温室气体排放模型，并考虑业务发展。我们从加拿大几个主要机构中挑选的科学团队将带来各种协同的专业知识，以促进知识的发展，改善电化学系统的性能，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.