Sugar formation from CO2 electroreduction

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12344950-B2
Application number	US-202318458190-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2023
Priority date	Mar 8, 2021
Publication date	Jul 1, 2025
Grant date	Jul 1, 2025

Abstract

Formaldehyde is obtained from CO 2 through hydrogenation of CO 2 to methanol while the subsequent oxidation of methanol yields formaldehyde. This formaldehyde combined with the electrochemically produced glycolaldehyde generates sugars, thus establishing a route from CO 2 to sugars.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of making a sugar, comprising the steps of electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to form glycolaldehyde, wherein the glycolaldehyde then operates as an autocatalyst to promote conversion of formaldehyde to the sugar in a formose reaction,
further comprising: generating the formaldehyde from CO 2 through hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol, and oxidizing the methanol yields formaldehyde,
wherein the electrochemical reduction employs:
(i) a copper nanoparticle based electrocatalyst as a cathode in an electrochemical CO 2 reduction environment,
ii) a Pt mesh as an anode to balance charge by the oxygen evolution reaction, and
(iii) an electrochemical CO 2 reduction environment provided by KHCO 3 saturated with constantly flowing pure CO 2 ,
wherein the formose reaction conditions include Ca(OH) 2 , providing a divalent metal cation Ca 2+ catalyst, temperature of 75° C., and pH titrated to 11;
wherein the sugar is selected from tetroses, pentoses, hexoses, heptoses and octoses.

2. The method of claim 1 , powered by solar energy and performed in an extraterrestrial environment.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising isolating the resultant sugar.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising formulating the resultant sugar in a feedstock configured for E. coli bacteria.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein sugar production is over 96% of carbon yield, and side-product production, including formate and methanol, is less than 4%.

Assignees

• Univ California

Inventors

• Yang Peidong
• Cestellos-Blanco Stefano
• Li Yifan
• Ross Michael B

Classifications

• C07H3/02

  Monosaccharides · CPC title

• C25B3/07

  Oxygen containing compounds · CPC title

• C25B11/061

  Metal or alloy · CPC title

• C25B11/052

  Electrodes comprising one or more electrocatalytic coatings on a substrate · CPC title

• C25B11/042

  Electrodes formed of a single material · CPC title