Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to Fuels for Power-to-Gas Energy Storage
- Sustainable Innovations Inc., East Hartford, CT (United States)
Concern surrounding the increasing level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is intensifying global interest in discovering sustainable methods for the utilization of fossil fuels and the products of their combustion. Proposed limits on CO2 emissions from new electric generating units necessitate carbon capture on fossil energy power plants. Sustainable Innovations' CO2RENEW™ makes it possible to generate fuels and commodity chemicals through a pathway that creates a carbon negative solution when coupled to renewable energy sources. The CO2RENEW™ system also provides the potential to turn any spinning reserve power source into a fuel generation plant, thereby significantly reducing wasted electricity. Phase I of this project has demonstrated the fundamental feasibility of this approach and has generated critical design data for ongoing and future development efforts. The overall objective of this project is to develop an Electrochemical Methane Generation (EMG) system that is ideal for producing methane from CO2 produced as a result of combustion of fossil fuels in large-scale power plants in a power-to-gas model. The power-to-gas model derives hydrogen from excess renewables, and reacts it electrochemically with CO2 from the combustion of fossil fuels to efficiently produce methane; which can be injected into the existing natural gas infrastructure. The key technical objectives were translated to laboratory experiments focused on the following objectives: (1) Demonstrate conversion of a 100% CO2 stream to CH4 at a high Faradaic efficiency. (2) Determine the feasibility of converting dilute CO2 streams similar to that found in flue gas chemistries to CH4 in benchtop experiments. (3) Complete parametric performance mapping of individual cell elements. (4) Perform techno-economic studies on a power-to-gas model for a typical coal fired plant configuration, investigate economic viability and identify key technical drivers required to achieve viability.
- Research Organization:
- Sustainable Innovations Inc., East Hartford, CT (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0015879
- OSTI ID:
- 1423131
- Type / Phase:
- SBIR (Phase I)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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