Techno-economic analysis of commercial CO2 to formic acid electrolytic stacks and process

Electro Carbon aims at developing a compact prototype that electro-reduces CO2 captured from combustion into formic acid. Formic acid is the building material for chemicals, used as hydrogen carrier for direct formic acid fuel cells and/or converted to commodity chemicals. 1 L of liquid formic acid contains the equivalent of 590 L of hydrogen. In the electroreduction of CO2 to formic acid, the targets are a Faradaic efficiency > 90% and a current density > 200 mA cm-2. The objective of the project is to predict the output of the electrolyzer by modeling the input, operating conditions, cell stack configuration, catalyst kinetics, current density, etc. The project also encompasses the techno-economic analysis of the entire CO2 to formic acid process, including product separation.

Faculty Supervisor:

Daria Camilla Boffito

Student:

Partner:

Electro Carbon

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Manufacturing; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

Polytechnique Montréal

Program: