CO2RR-OOR electrolyser system and related process for facilitating the capture and conversion of CO2 in gas mixture streams

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12365995-B2
Application number	US-202318864297-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 10, 2023
Priority date	May 10, 2022
Publication date	Jul 22, 2025
Grant date	Jul 22, 2025

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a MEA electrolyser comprising a cathodic compartment operating CO2 reduction reactions (CO 2 RR) of CO 2 from a gaseous CO 2 -containing stream, an anodic compartment operating all-liquid organic oxidation reactions (OOR), an ionic exchange membrane in between. A CO 2 RR-OOR system can further include a gas-liquid separation unit in fluid communication with the anodic compartment to receive the anodic product mixture and separate gaseous CO 2 from the anodic product mixture to produce a CO 2 -depleted liquid product stream and a recovered pure gaseous CO 2 stream. The system can further include a recycle line in fluid communication with the gas-liquid separation unit to redirect the recovered pure gaseous CO 2 stream to the cathodic compartment of the MEA electrolyser as a portion of the gaseous CO 2 -containing stream. The present disclosure also concerns a process for electrochemically converting the gaseous CO 2 -containing stream to multi-carbon products in such a MEA CO 2 RR-OOR electrolyser.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for electrochemically converting a gaseous carbon dioxide stream to multi-carbon products having at least two carbon atoms in a carbon dioxide reduction reaction/organic oxidation reaction (CO 2 RR/OOR), the process is characterized in that it comprises:
a) providing a CO 2 RR/OOR system being a catholyte-free system and comprising:
an anodic compartment comprising an anode and configured to operate the organic oxidation reaction; and
a cathodic compartment comprising a cathode with a CO 2 reduction reaction catalyst being or comprising copper and being configured to operate carbon dioxide reduction reactions;

b) providing a solution comprising an anolyte and an organic liquid-phase precursor of an organic oxidation reaction;
c) supplying the solution to the anodic compartment of the CO 2 RR/OOR system to operate the organic oxidation reaction and generate an anodic product mixture comprising OOR liquid-phase products;
d) supplying a gaseous CO 2 -containing stream to the cathodic compartment of the CO 2 RR/OOR system to operate the reduction of a first portion of CO 2 and generate a cathodic product mixture comprising multi-carbon products, wherein a second portion of CO 2 is transferred to the anodic compartment by an ionic exchange to produce a crossover CO 2 ;
e) recovering the anodic product mixture from the anodic compartment, the anodic product mixture comprising the crossover CO 2 ;
f) separating the crossover CO 2 from the anodic product mixture to produce a CO 2 -depleted product stream and a recovered pure gaseous CO 2 stream.

2. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the CO 2 concentration of the gaseous CO 2 -containing stream is ranging between 5 vol. % and 95 vol. %, based on the total volume of the gaseous CO 2 -containing stream; or between 10 vol. % and 90 vol. %.

3. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the process is carried out at a temperature ranging between 30° C. and 50° C.

4. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the gaseous CO 2 -containing stream is a by-product CO 2 stream produced from an industrial upstream process.

5. The process according to claim 4 is characterized in that the industrial upstream process is fermentation of glucose to ethanol.

6. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the OOR liquid-phase products comprise gluconate, glucuronate, glucarate, formate, tartarate, tratronate or any mixture thereof.

7. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that it further comprises redirecting the recovered pure gaseous CO 2 stream to the cathodic compartment as a portion of the gaseous CO 2 -containing stream to maximize CO 2 utilization.

8. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that it comprises redirecting the recovered pure gaseous CO 2 stream as a feedstream to another electrolyser being a solid oxide electrolyser cell, a membrane electrode assembly electrolyser, an alkaline flow cell or any combination thereof.

9. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the anolyte is selected from KHCO 3 , K 2 CO 3 , NaHCO 3 , Na 2 CO 3 and any mixture thereof.

10. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the organic liquid-phase precursor is or comprises one or more selected from glucose, glycerol, furfural, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, ethanol, n-propanol, iso-propanol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, starch, cellulose, lignin and any mixtures thereof.

11. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the solution comprising the anolyte and the organic liquid-phase precursor has a bulk pH between 4 and 9.

12. The process according to claim 1 is characterized in that the multi-carbon products are or comprise ethylene.

Assignees

• Totalenergies Onetech
• Governing Council Univ Toronto

Inventors

• Xie Ke
• Ozden Adnan
• Sargent Edward H
• Sinton David
• Sarkar Amitava
• Jaffer Shaffiq

Classifications

• C25B13/08

  based on organic materials · CPC title

• C25B11/091

  consisting of at least one catalytic element and at least one catalytic compound; consisting of two or more catalytic elements or catalytic compounds · CPC title

• C25B9/23

  comprising ion-exchange membranes in or on which electrode material is embedded · CPC title

• C25B15/087

  Recycling of electrolyte to electrochemical cell · CPC title

• C25B9/70

  Assemblies comprising two or more cells · CPC title