Electrified hydrocarbon-to-oxygenates coupled to hydrogen evolution for efficient greenhouse gas mitigation

Wan Ru Leow (), Simon Völker, Raoul Meys, Jianan Erick Huang, Shaffiq A. Jaffer, André Bardow () and Edward H. Sargent ()
Additional contact information
Wan Ru Leow: University of Toronto
Simon Völker: RWTH Aachen University
Raoul Meys: RWTH Aachen University
Jianan Erick Huang: University of Toronto
Shaffiq A. Jaffer: TOTAL American Services Inc.
André Bardow: RWTH Aachen University
Edward H. Sargent: University of Toronto

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Chemicals manufacture is among the top greenhouse gas contributors. More than half of the associated emissions are attributable to the sum of ammonia plus oxygenates such as methanol, ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid. Here we explore the impact of electrolyzer systems that couple electrically-powered anodic hydrocarbon-to-oxygenate conversion with cathodic H2 evolution reaction from water. We find that, once anodic hydrocarbon-to-oxygenate conversion is developed with high selectivities, greenhouse gas emissions associated with fossil-based NH3 and oxygenates manufacture can be reduced by up to 88%. We report that low-carbon electricity is not mandatory to enable a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions: global chemical industry emissions can be reduced by up to 39% even with electricity having the carbon footprint per MWh available in the United States or China today. We conclude with considerations and recommendations for researchers who wish to embark on this research direction.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37382-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-37382-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-37382-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().