CO2 and Renewable Electricity into Chemicals: Formic Acid Production from Coal Flue Gas
Formic acid (FA) is an industrial chemical. It is used as a preservative for silage, as a digestive aid for animals, as a fluid for fracking, as a pharmaceutical intermediate and in leather tanning. The global formic acid market is valued at 777.4 million USD in 2020 and is expected to reach 851.8 million USD by the end of 2026. A new major formic acid application is the use of formic acid as a key feedstock for the bioprocessing industry. It has the potential to grow tremendously if we can lower the cost of formic acid production compared with the current fossil-fuel one. Recently, Dioxide Materials has developed a technology that can directly convert CO2 to pure formic acid with a three-compartment CO2 electrolyzer. However, the electrolyzer performance needs further improvement for the technology to be commercially viable. The major objective of this project is to develop the electrolyzer technology to enable formic acid as a feedstock for the bioprocessing industry to be economically manufactured from flue gas from a coal fired pilot plant. In particular, the project is to understand how to run the electrolyzer for the conversion of CO2 into formic acid using flue gas from a coal fired power plant as a source of CO2. The work will include characterizing how the performance of the electrolyzer changes with low CO2 concentration and impurities, developing new cell designs that can still operate with feedstocks with low CO2 concentrations, testing simulated flue gas in the electrolyzer system and developing filters to remove any impurities that arise.
- Research Organization:
- Dioxide Materials, Inc., Boca Raton, FL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0031706
- OSTI ID:
- 1829983
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-DM-0031706
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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