Chemical Engineering September 2021 - 14

NREL
FIGURE 3. Formate can both stimulate the conversion into lipids and serve as an anchor for recycling
carbon dioxide from the fermentation
all processes, because it is more expensive
than the electrolysis itself, "
says Waldvogel.
Nevertheless,
electrosynthesis
has been shown to be advantageous
for a number of reactions.
In a recent example, Waldvogel's
group reported an electrochemical
route to sulfonamides, which are
used in many drugs (Chem. Eng.,
April 2021, p. 8-9). The new route
requires only one synthesis step,
compared to three required by conventional
routes, which also require
corrosive chemicals, high temperatures
and expensive metal catalysts.
JGU is also involved in a €10-million
project under the E.U.'s Horizon
program, which began in 2018 with
the aim to produce chemicals from
wood-based lignin. The Liberate project
(Lignin Biorefinery Approach Using
Electrochemical
Flow)
involves
16
partners, including chemical producers
Evonik Operations GmbH (Essen,
Germany; www.evonik.com),
Perstorp
AB (Malmo, Sweden; www.
perstorp.com) and Oxiris Chemicals
S.A. (Barcelona, Spain; www.
oxirischemicals.com), as well as smallto-medium
sized companies and universities
and research institutes.
In the Liberate project, a highly
efficient and selective anodic electrochemical
oxidation is being used
to depolymerize lignin and produce
chemicals. Three types of lignin are
being studied: Kraft, organosolv and
Fabiola (three different pulping processes).
The depolymerization process
developed at JGU takes place
at 160°C in a caustic solution using
nickel electrodes. Three different
product trains are being developed:
one for making vanillin; another for
converting cyclohexanols into 3-propyl
adipic acid, a precursor for mak14
ing
polyamides and unsaturated
polyester resins; and mixed phenolic
derivatives, which can be used for
making antioxidants, phenol-formaldehyde
resins and other chemicals.
A pilot plant is being constructed
at Liberate-partner Sintef AS's site
in Trondheim, Norway. " The reactor
system (a plug-flow reactor) has
now been implemented into the pilot
plant, and we are working on commissioning, "
says Bernd Wittgens,
senior advisor at Sintef. He expects
continuous operation to begin in Q3
2021. The project runs through December
2022.
PowerPlatform (Perform) is another
project of the E.U.'s Horizon 2020
program that is aimed at establishing
a platform infrastructure for highly selective
electrochemical conversions
with the goal of the electrification of
the chemical industry. This 4-year,
€1.7-million project is led by the Netherlands
Organization for Applied Scientific
Research (TNO; The Hague,
the Netherlands; www.tno.nl) with
11 other partners, including industrial
participants Avantium Chemicals
B.V. (Amsterdam, the Netherlands;
www.avantium.com), Perstorp, AVA
Biochem BSL AG (Muttenz, Switzerland;
www.ava-biochem.com), Novamont
S.p.A. (Novara, Italy; www.
novamont.com) and Radici Chimica
S.p.A. (Bergamo, Italy; www.radici
group.com). The engineering company
Hystech S.r.l. (Turin, Italy; www.
hysytech.com) will design and manufacture
the platform.
Two different lines are being developed
in the platform, which involve
the use of biomass-derived C5-C6
feedstock. " Sugar is the new oil, "
says Bart van den Bosch, an R&D
chemist at Avantium.
In Line 1, a paired electrochemiCO2
utilization
For the last five years, TotalEnergies
SE (Paris, France; www.
totalenergies.com) and the research
groups of David Sinton, professor of
mechanical and industrial engineering
and Ted Sargent, professor of
electrical and computer engineering
at the University of Toronto (Canada;
www.utoronto.ca) have been
developing an electrochemical process,
based on a membrane electrode
assembly (MEA), to convert
CO2 into C2 compounds, such as
ethylene (an important petrochemical)
and ethanol (for biofuels). In the
initial stages of the research, considerable
work was done to improve
the electrochemical conversion.
First, nanocatalysts were developed,
followed by microstructured
electrodes " that made sure the reactants
get to where they need to
be, " explains Sinton. The researchers
were then able to increase ethylene
productivity by extending the
active area of the electrode. This
was done by using a metal:ionomer
hybrid catalyst, which decouples
gas, ion and electron transport, and
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
SEPTEMBER 2021
cal process is used, whereby furfural
is oxidized at the anode to maleic
acid, and levulinic acid is reduced at
the cathode into valeric acid. Both
of these value-added products are
industrially relevant, and producing
them simultaneously in the same
cell has obvious economic advantages.
In Line 2, paired tandem
electrosynthesis is used to oxidize
glucose to glucaric acid, which is
then hydrodeoxygenated into adipic
acid, another important commodity
chemical. The core of the process is
the catalyst, which is said to have a
selectivity of over 80%.
Currently, the project, which began
in January 2019, is in phase 2 with
scaleup to a 1,000-cm2 cell capable
of producing 25 g/h of product, with
integrated downstream processing
(electrodialysis, nanofiltration, extraction
and distillation, crystallization).
Although the location is not yet
decided, the pilot plant will be constructed
in 2022 and the demonstration
finished in 2023. After that, the
platform will be available for others to
develop electrochemical processes.

http://www.totalenergies.com http://www.evonik.com http://www.tno.nl http://www.utoronto.ca http://www.perstorp.com http://www.oxirischemicals.com http://www.avantium.com http://www.ava-biochem.com http://www.novamont.com http://www.radici http://www.group.com http://www.hysytech.com http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM

Chemical Engineering September 2021

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