STTR Phase I: Scalable CO2 electrolyzers for the production of ethylene glycol and chlorine

该STTR项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是聚合物化学工业设备的技术和经济论证。乙二醇主要用于生产纺织品和食品包装用塑料。氯是用于水净化和聚氯乙烯（PVC）制造的主要工业化学品。与石化采购不同，这种拟议的电化学过程利用了废弃的二氧化碳和可再生电力，导致净碳负排放。将乙二醇和氯的联合生产结合起来，将使整个工艺与化石原料生产相比具有成本竞争力，同时支持环境可持续性。该平台技术有望扩展到化学工业的其他部分。该STTR第一阶段项目旨在通过一个单元化设备解决三种主要化学品的可持续联合生产：氯（Cl 2），氢氧化钠（NaOH）和乙二醇，来自可再生电力，盐水和二氧化碳。目前的二氧化碳减排（CO2 RR）受到三个主要限制：1）高电力成本，2）大宗化学品的相对价格低，以及3）CO2减排的低能效。该项目将通过使用最近开发的节能CO2 RR到乙二醇催化剂并联产Cl 2和NaOH来抵消电力成本和低乙二醇价格来解决这些限制。将解决由Cl 2、NaOH和CO2 RR组合产生的三个技术障碍：A）生产Cl 2和NaOH，这需要严格的产物分离（导致价值较低的次氯酸盐和不纯的NaOH）; B）在电池中保持三种不同的pH条件（酸性代表氯，碱性代表碱，中性代表CO2 RR）;和C）为复杂的多产品工艺提供对膜、电极和电解槽设计的基本见解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得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的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this STTR project is the technical and economic demonstration of a device for the the polymer chemical industry. Ethylene glycol is primarily used in the production of plastics for textiles and food packaging. Chlorine is a major industrial chemical used in water purification and fabrication of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) fabrication. This proposed electrochemical process utilizes waste carbon dioxide and renewable electricity, resulting in net carbon-negative emissions, unlike petrochemical sourcing. Combining ethylene glycol and the co-production of chlorine will make the overall process cost-competitive with production from fossil feedstocks, while supporting environmental sustainability. This platform technology holds promise for an extension to other parts of the chemical industry. This STTR Phase I project proposes to address the sustainable co-production of three major chemicals by one unitized device: Chlorine (Cl2), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), and ethylene glycol from renewable electricity, brine, and carbon dioxide. Current carbon dioxide reduction (CO2RR) suffers from three major constraints: 1) high electricity costs, 2) low relative price of bulk chemicals, and 3) low energy efficiency of CO2 reduction. This project will address these constraints by using recently developed energy efficient CO2RR to ethylene glycol catalysts and co-producing Cl2 and NaOH to offset the electricity cost and low ethylene glycol price. Three technical barriers that result from combing Cl2, NaOH, and CO2RR will be addressed: A) Producing Cl2 and NaOH, which requires strict product separation (leading to less valuable hypochlorite and impure NaOH); B) Maintaining three different pH conditions in the cell (acidic for chlorine, basic for alkali, and neutral for CO2RR); and C) Providing fundamental insights into the membrane, electrode, and electrolyzer designs for complex multiproduct processes. These will be addressed by combined experiments and modeling.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.