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The OCEAN project aims to develop an integrated process for the production of high-value C2 chemicals from carbon dioxide using electrochemistry. This will be achieved by: 1) improving and optimizing a TRL5 technology that can convert carbon dioxide to formate, to TRL6. OCEAN will bring this technology just one-step away from commercialization, by demonstrating this technology at the site of an industrial electricity provider, converting 250g of CO2 per hour at 1.5 kA/m2. The energy efficiency will be improved by coupling the cathodic reaction to the oxidation of glucose at the anode, using a novel technology to match the kinetics of the reactions at both electrodes.
The obtained formate can be converted to oxalate. 2)Developing new electrochemical methodologies to further convert formate and oxalate to formic acid and oxalic acid, respectively. Novel salt-splitting will be investigated using bipolar membranes. Again, this allows for direct coupling with an electrosynthesis step at the anode and/or cathode. 3)Developing new electrochemical methodologies by converting oxalic acid to glycolic acid and other high-value C2-products, these will be benchmarked with conventional hydrogenation. 4) Integrating the TRL6 and new (TRL4-5) electrochemical technologies in an industrial process, aimed at the production of high-value C2 products and polymers thereof by developing the process steps needed to produce oxalate, C2 products and polymers. 5) Demonstrating the economic feasibility by performing a market analysis and making a business case and exploitation strategy.
Overall, OCEAN aims at addressing the critical elements that are currently hindering new electrochemical processes by targeting high value products that have the corresponding production margin to introduce this technology on the market, lower the power costs by combining oxidation and reduction, and a trans-disciplinary approach that is needed for the introduction of these advanced technologies.
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PARTNER 1
ERIC a.i.s.b.l. (European Research Institute of Catalysis) is an Association International Sans Bout Lucratif (nonprofit society) with the registered office in Belgium. ERIC a.i.s.b.l. is the Durable Integration Structure (DIS) created from the EU Network of Excellence IDECAT (NMP3-CT-2005-011730). ERIC is currently composed by over 20 partners with large activities on catalysis. ERIC will manage and coordinate the project with proper personnel, while the scientific part related to the development of the electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction to formic acid/formate will be made at the Research Unit located at the University of Messina, Italy (member of ERIC aisbl).
PARTNER 2
GASKATEL is active in the field of electrochemistry. Besides the sales of standard products GSKL manufactures custom-tailored gas diffusion electrodes for various applications with its manufacturing line that is capable forsmall sample electrodes as well as for quantities up to 100 linear metres. The advantage of the used manufacturing process is the excellent scalability. In OCEAN, GSKL will upscale the GDE’s to 0.2 m2
PARTNER 3
Removed due to the exit from the project
PARTNER 4
HYSYTECH A chemical engineering company specialized in the development, manufacturing, certification and operation of first of a kind plants. HST is a core technology developer for reformers, fuel cells and BOP components, service supplier in research, engineering, production and stationary&dynamic application level; supplier of components, chemical reactors, pilot plants and bench test. HST will design manufacture the formate to oxalate reactor, as well as manufacture the electrochemical cell for the Demo Cell.
PARTNER 5
AVANTIUM has been developing an equipment platform to investigate electrocatalytic reactions. The combination of this platform with the already present high throughput technologies and extensive knowledge on catalysis is very powerful in the development of electrocatalytic processes. In addition, Avantium has recently acquired the assets from Liquid Light, a US based company that developed an advanced technology platform to reduce carbon dioxide. AVT will optimize and engineer the this TRL5 technology for use under industrial conditions, so move it to TRL6. Based on its expertise with Service offerings in catalysis for the chemical industry, as well as its experience in developing its own process to make biobased plastics (the YXY technology, now in a JV with BASF) AVT will integrate the various electrochemical steps into industrial operations towards high value C2 products. AVT will also lead the market and exploitation analysis, based on their experience with biomass conversion, to provide insight into the market and the activities needed for the exploitation of the results, resulting in a business case and exploitation strategy. AVT will be the scientific coordinator. AVT has been involved in the setting-up and management of large public-private research projects (PPS) including B-Basic, CatchBio and CCC (carbohydrate competence center), and has also been leading in setting-up and (scientific) management of several large EU projects (a.o. Biofur, Hugs).
PARTNER 6
ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI TECNOLOGIA will play a fundamental role in the development and characterization of bipolar membrane based electrodialysis modules. The new multi-stage acidification system will be the ideal platform to use different, tailored catalysts at different stages to maximise yield for both the oxidation and reduction.IIT know-how will be especially used for the electrochemical characterization of the electrodes and catalysts. IIT also holds a variety of techniques for decorating the carbons with active metal species (wet impregnation, CVD, PVD, sputtering, etc.), characterize them (TEM with probes, FESEM, FIB, BET, etc.). IIT will also have a primary role in WP6 for the Life Cycle Analysis and process assessment and quantification of environmental impact.
PARTNER 7
RWE’s Coal Innovation Centre at Niederaussem as testing site of the OCEAN demonstrator is widely known in research and engineering for testing of new technologies under real industrial boundary conditions to achieve commercial status and to prepare large-scale implementation. Several thousand visitors per year from the public, press and politics as well as scientists from all over the world are visiting the site to inform oneself about innovations in the energy sector. RWE will provide data for the LCA based on the testing and maintenance of the OCEAN demonstrator under real industrial boundary conditions and the CO2 post-combustion capture technology. RWE will support the market analysis by providing data from the electricity market, CCUS and its experience on chemical products from coal gasification (Coal to Liquid). Using its experience on the economics of energy storage technologies RWE will challenge the use of excess power from fluctuating renewables as only energy source for the CCU application and source of earnings from load leveling to develop a robust business case for the OCEAN technology. As a proper management of IP enhances the chances of an effective exploitation of the research results, RWE will bring in its experience on IPR (in-house department on IPR at RWE) as a leading patent holder in the European energy sector. Regulatory hurdles and barriers for the market entrance for the exploitation will be identified.
PARTNER 8
University of Amsterdam. The group’s new laboratories are located at the Science Park Amsterdam. It has over 400 m2 of state-of-the-art labs for the synthesis, testing and characterization of catalysts and porous materials. The University has a world renowned track record in carbonylation/hydroformulation. The first of the two PhD students in this project will be based in the Reek group. All relevant catalytic carbonylation reactors at laboratory scale and all required analytical equipment (NMR, LC, GC, GCMS, etc.) is available. The 2nd PhD student will work on polymerization using oxalic acid and other C2 di-acids / di-alcohols produced with the OCEAN technology
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EU PROJECT OFFICER:
Project Officer: Dr. Lucia Macia FERNANDEZ Research Programme OfficerEuropean Commission
DG Research & Innovation
Directorate D – Industrial Technologies
Unit D2 "Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Biotechnologies"
Project Coordinator:
Professor Siglinda Perathoner
Dept. ChiBioFarAm, Sect. Industrial Chemistry V.le F. Stagno D'Alcontres 31 98166 Messina – Italy
tel.: +39 090 6765609
E-mail: perathon@unime.it
Scientific coordinator:
Dr. Klaas Jan Schouten
Program Manager Renewable Chemistries cell. +31 6 46799485 or office: +31 20 5860184
Email: klaasjan.schouten@avantium.com
Sciencepark 408, 1098 XKH Amsterdam, The Netherlands
t +31 20 586 8080, www.avantium.com, twitter.com/Avantium
Coordinator Management Team:
Dr. Serena Orsi
Tel: +39-345-8093297
E-mail: sorsi@eric-aisbl.eu
Skype: serewinnie
Dr. Stefano Vannuzzi
Tel: +39-055-233-8713
E-mail:svannuzzi@eric-aisbl.eu
Skype: svannuzzi