The electrically-powered synthesis of ethylene for the chemical industry

减少二氧化碳排放是一项紧迫的全球性挑战。目前缺乏捕获工业排放物的经济激励，因为捕获的CO2几乎没有价值。然而，随着可再生电力容量的规模不断增加，同时价格不断下降，使用清洁电力将CO2转化为有价值的产品存在巨大的机会。电催化可以从CO2原料合成传统的化石衍生化学品;然而，现有的系统性能较差，与现有技术相比没有竞争力。我们将开发新的催化剂材料和系统，以实现可再生乙烯生产的高选择性和效率。乙烯是世界上最重要的石油化工产品之一，市场规模约为2000亿美元。该项目将产生一种可再生电力驱动的乙烯合成工艺，与传统的化石衍生方法相比具有经济竞争力。这将有助于加拿大实现其温室气体排放目标，为石化行业脱碳提供一条道路，并使可再生电力和碳捕获技术的吸收成为可能。该提案是与工业合作伙伴共同制定的：道达尔，一家总部位于法国巴黎的大型综合石油和天然气公司，在蒙特利尔有重要业务;以及它的子公司，哈钦森，一家位于蒙特利尔的航空航天和材料公司。我们的目标是确保该项目与加拿大工业的相关性，特别是确保该技术与道达尔/哈钦森的石化业务兼容。

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is an urgent global challenge. There is currently a lack of economicincentive to capture industrial emissions as there is little value in the captured CO2. However, as renewableelectricity capacity continues to increase in scale while dropping in price, there exists an enormous opportunityto use clean electricity to convert CO2 into products of value using electrocatalysis. Electrocatalysis enables thesynthesis of conventionally fossil-derived chemicals from CO2 feedstock; however, existing systems exhibitpoor performance and are not competitive with incumbent technologies.We will develop new catalyst materials and systems to achieve high selectivity and efficiency for renewableethylene production. Ethylene is one of the most important petrochemicals in the world and has a market sizeof approximately $200B.This project will result in a process for the renewable electricity-powered synthesis of ethylene that iseconomically competitive with conventional fossil-derived methods. This will help Canada reach itsgreenhouse gas emission goals by providing a path towards decarbonization of the petrochemicals industry andenabling the uptake of renewable electricity and carbon capture technologies.This proposal was developed jointly with the industrial partners: TOTAL, a major integrated oil and gascompany headquartered in Paris, France having significant operations in Montreal; and also with its subsidiary,Hutchinson, an aerospace and materials company based in Montreal. Our goal was to ensure relevance of theproject to Canadian industry, and specifically to ensure that the technology is compatible withTOTAL/Hutchinson's petrochemical operations.