General Techno-Economic Analysis for Electrochemical Coproduction of CO2 Reduction and Anodic Oxidation

Abstract

The electrochemical reduction of CO2 recently draws great attention because of its sustainable capability of producing fuels and chemicals. However, the high over potential of CO2 reduction reaction-oxygen evolution reaction (CO2RR-OER) have been pointed out as an obstacle of commercialization. Herein, we propose electrochemical co-production of CO2RR and oxidative reforming of organic materials. The oxidative reforming of organic materials not only potentially reduces operating cell voltages but also improves system economic feasibility by producing more valuable chemicals than oxygen. We introduces an automated and generalized platform for the techno-economic evaluation (TES) of electrochemical coproduction system and investigate the 16 candidates of CO2RR for cathode and 18 candidates of organic oxidation reaction for anode. The TES platform generates a product oriented process systems design including reaction, separation, and recycle. Global sensitivity analysis of Faraday efficiency, current density, and overpotential for the levelized cost of each product to understand which index should be improved first. Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, formic acid, glycoladehyde, ally alcohol, ethylene glycol, acetic acid, and propanol can be the promising candidate for the CO2RR and 2,5-Furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA), oxalic acid, acrylic acid, glycolic acid, lactic acid, 2-furoic acid, and ethyl acetate can be the promising candidate for the anodic oxidation.