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Can investing in CCU technologies unlock a sustainable and greener future?

Can investing in CCU technologies unlock a sustainable and greener future?
Can investing in CCU technologies unlock a sustainable and greener future?

In a world increasingly consumed by the urgency of climate change, the quest for solutions is paramount. One of the leading culprits in this global crisis is the relentless emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into our atmosphere. Enter “Carbon Capture and Utilization” (CCU), an innovative approach that aims to transform CO2 from an environmental foe into a valuable asset.

Picture this: CCU technologies like ECO2Fuel work to convert CO2 captured from industrial processes or directly from the air, using only three simple ingredients—CO2, water, and green electricity. The result? E-fuels or green value-added chemicals that help to reduce the overall CO2 burden on our atmosphere.

But, like many cutting-edge solutions, CCU technologies face a formidable obstacle: cost. At present, it’s more expensive to produce chemicals from CO2 than from traditional fossil fuels. Time may be a great healer, but it’s a luxury we cannot afford in the race against climate change. So, the call to action is clear: more investments must be funnelled into advancing CCU technologies, driving down costs and ramping up efficiencies.

Apart from the glaring reality that climate change poses a serious threat to our existence, there are additional reasons why investing in CCU is crucial:

  1. Economic growth and job creation: Developing and implementing CCU technologies can lead to the creation of new industries, spurring economic growth and generating employment opportunities.
  2. Energy security: By converting CO2 into valuable resources like e-fuels, we can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and move towards a more sustainable and secure energy future.
  3. Waste reduction: Utilizing CO2 as a raw material for the production of valuable chemicals and materials can minimize waste and promote a circular economy.
  4. Enhanced global cooperation: Investments in CCU technologies can foster international collaboration in research, development, and implementation, helping to unite countries in the fight against climate change.
  5. Technological innovation: Funding CCU research and development can lead to breakthroughs in other related fields, such as renewable energy, energy storage, and advanced materials.
  6. Environmental benefits: Apart from mitigating CO2 emissions, CCU technologies can have positive knock-on effects on air quality and ecosystems, contributing to a healthier planet overall.

Together, we can turn the tide against climate change by supporting and investing in CCU technologies, which not only help to mitigate the impacts of our carbon footprint but also pave the way for a sustainable and greener future.

At ECO2Fuel, in collaboration with the European Union and numerous industry partners, we’re not just talking the talk—we’re walking the walk. Together, we’re taking charge and forging ahead to develop the world’s most efficient and economically viable direct CO2 electrolyser, operating at an unparalleled scale of 1MW.

Join us on this groundbreaking journey and become a part of the thriving ECO2Fuel community.

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3rd ECO2Fuel General Assembly Meeting

Last week, the project’s alliance came together in the charming cities of Antwerp and Mol, Belgium, for a captivating third general assembly meeting. The event focused on evaluating the incredible strides made over the past half-year and strategizing the upcoming steps.

ECO2Fuel 3rd Grand Assembly Meeting

The two-day gathering featured a delightful consortium dinner on the first day, an engaging lab tour at VITO in Mol, and an insightful Dissemination and Exploitation workshop held by META on the second day.

This meeting showcased the remarkable progress achieved in recent months as the team works diligently towards realizing the ECO2Fuel project’s objectives and constructing the world’s first groundbreaking 1MW direct CO2 electrolyser.

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The development of CO2 Electrolysers

Studying CO2 conversion into e-fuels, especially inside a system resembling real-world applications, includes many steps.

CNR-ITAE, a research institute in Messina, Italy, and consortium partner of the ECO2Fuel project, show us these steps, emphasizing the labour-intensive research needed to develop green technologies such as the ECO2Fuel CO2 electrolyser. 

Minute 0-0:08: The first step is to prepare the catalyst-coated electrodes – For that, the catalyst for the reactions that convert CO2 into e-fuels is coated on electrodes are prepared by spraying the catalyst from a liquid dispersion onto the electrode surface.

The second step (not shown on the clip but essential for the process) is the preparation of the so-called membrane-electrode assembly (MEA) consisting of an anion-exchange membrane sandwiched between the two catalyst-coated electrodes, one for the anode side and one for the cathode side. 

Minute 0:09-0:27: The MEA is then placed into the electrochemical cell with a zero-gap design, meaning that the water and the CO2 are being pumped through the cell with a very close contact to the MEA with the advantage of a very small ohmic resistance, hence zero-gap.

The zero-gap cell is then connected to the water and CO2 supply and to the electrical power that will derive the electrochemical reactions inside the cell.

Minute 0:28-1:06: The liquid products, such as ethanol and propanol, are collected in a cold trap and analysed by a headspace gas chromatograph coupled with a mass spectrometer at the end of the reaction. In contrast, gaseous products such as methane, ethylene, and carbon monoxide are analysed continuously (not on the clip) by an online gas chromatograph.

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ECO2Fuel closes the carbon cycle for peak and backup power

ECO2Fuel closes the carbon cycle for peak and backup power
  • E-fuel produced in a co-electrolysis from renewable power and captured CO2
  • Efficient low CO2 peak-power generation from e-fuel in a diesel genset
  • Multiple CO2 recycling by feeding engine exhaust in a carbon capture plant
ECO2Fuel closes the carbon cycle for peak and backup power
Source: RWE

The de-fossilization of all sectors – electricity, heating, production, and transportation – will be necessary to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming. Sector coupling, i.e. the transformation of renewable power (“green” electrons) into other energy carriers and chemical raw materials (“green” molecules), will play an important role in all cases where a direct electrification is not possible in a foreseeable future.

The core of the ECO2Fuel technology is a co-electrolysis process that produces “green” synthetic e-fuels from electric power, water, and CO2 at competitive prices, in line with the need for a sustainable, cross-sectoral energy and raw material supply. An additional big benefit of e-fuels is that they have a high energy density and are easily stored for a long time. Closed carbon cycles can be established using sustainable biomass while fossil-based feedstocks are substituted and emissions from their use are avoided.

ECO2Fuel closes the carbon cycle for peak and backup power
Source: RWE

Energy storage is an inherent prerequisite in a power supply based on renewables only. Existing energy storage technologies like pumped hydro or batteries fall short to meet the demand in case of calm, foggy weather in winter, which may last days and weeks. Today, conventional power plants step in to meet the power demand, but these need to be converted or replaced to become GHG-neutral within the next decades. In the event of a power outage, the operability of the critical infrastructure (hospitals, airports, civil protection, telecommunication, water, military, other) are backed-up by emergency power generators, usually diesel gensets that need to be converted or replaced as well.

ECO2Fuel will expand the application of e-fuels to existing diesel engines, both stationary and automotive, using a fuel drop-in approach. In the project, CRF (Centro Ricerche Fiat) as an automotive developer and RWE as a power supplier will mix the produced e-fuels with diesel, test various fuel blends in vehicles and in a stationary genset and will validate the suitability of the resulting fuel blends for the existing diesel engine fleet.

It is estimated that more than 80 million diesel gensets exist around the world, with an expected increase of annual installations from 2.1 million units in 2020 to 3 million units in 2030[1]. Using a share of climate-friendly e-fuels in the existing diesel engine fleet, combined with the quick installation of the needed backup power capacities based on well-established diesel gensets, will quickly lower GHG emissions from the transportation and the power sector.

The technology based on ECO2Fuel will offer grid-balancing services due to its capability to store renewable energy by a power-to-fuel process. The stored renewable energy will be used for peak and emergency power generation using the existing diesel engine technology and infrastructure.

As another novelty, the ECO2Fuel project will demonstrate CO2 recycling and waste heat recovery by feeding the exhaust gas of a diesel genset running on synthetic e-fuel into a post-combustion carbon capture unit. The captured CO2 is utilized in the co-electrolysis process and is converted into e-fuels again, enabling multiple carbon capture and usage (CCU). This unique approach of multiple carbon cycles will achieve lowest GHG emission and validate a new concept of climate friendly peak-power production.

RWE will study the performance of the CO2 capture pilot plant during phases with engine exhaust gas feed into the flue gas, resulting in changed CO2 and O2 concentrations. The exhaust gas composition and temperature will be analysed, and the waste heat content of the exhaust gas flow will be balanced. The performance and efficiency of climate friendly peak and back-up power generation will be assessed on basis of the data analysis of the operating behaviour during start-up, ramp up/down cycles, operational parameter variation and operation in steady state. The results will be used as input of an economic analysis and a life-cycle assessment (LCA).

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E-Alcohol-Diesel blends: Lowering CO2 emissions for diesel-fueled internal combustion engines

In ECO2Fuel, CRF provide crucial information about the features of the diesel -alcohol blend produced within the project, helping the partner to calibrate this formulation in order to obtain a product that is compliant with the current standard in this field.

Source: CRF

Alcohols have an interesting potential as blending components for diesel fuels: if their production derives from renewable sources, they could contribute toward increasing the renewable fraction of these fuels and reducing their environmental impact.

The major limitations in fueling this blends in a diesel engine are the poor miscibility between alcohol and diesel, which leads to a phase separation, but also the lower flash point, cetane number, kinematic viscosity and energy content and higher heat of vaporization. As a consequence of their lower polarity, short-chain alcohols depict worse blending stability than alcohols of three or more carbons (propanol and higher).

To stabilize alcohol-diesel blends and to ensure fuel homogeneity under all temperature conditions, it is indispensable the use of additives as alcohol with longer chain (cetanol and dodecanol) or the biodiesel (FAME).

CRF performed a wide literature research to obtain an experimental matrix of possible diesel-alcohol (ethanol and propanol, the main products of the project) blends with different content of additives, in order to evaluate the most suitable and stable blend in all the conditions. 

These stability tests will be performed by UPV and the blends that show the most interesting features will be tested in CRF, in order to assess their compliance with the standard reference norm EN590: “Automotive fuels – Diesel – Requirements and test methods” the current standard for all automotive diesel fuel sold in the European Union member states and other European countries.

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The evaluation of the catalytic activity

Manuel Molina Muriel, PhD from UPV, carried out his research activity at the CNR-ITAE Institute in Messina for 3 months (July to September).

During this time, some of the materials synthetized in UPV were tested as electrocatalysts for the CO2 electroreduction reaction, in the framework of European project ECO2Fuel.

The main objective of this research collaboration was the evaluation of the catalytic activity of a series of materials for the electroreduction of CO2 to CO, hydrocarbons and/or alcohols, in the framework of the ECO2Fuel project.

This is indeed a truly relevant process for the successful transition to a cleaner energy production, since the CO2 originated as by product in multiple processes can be converted to fuels instead of being liberated to the atmosphere.

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The leading actor of CO2 Electroreduction

The electroreduction of CO2 bears several challenges, one of which is that the central reactant is in the gas phase. Due to that, when using conventional electrodes, the conversion of CO2 to valuable chemicals and fuels would proceed at a slow rate, rendering the process uneconomical.

The low concentration of CO2 in the electrolyte caused by its negligible solubility limits the mass transport at the electrode surfaces. To cope with this challenge, electrodes with an engineered porous structure were developed that drastically enhance the contact between the electrode, CO2 and the electrolyte; the three-phase boundary (TPB).

Source: De Nora

These enhanced electrodes, also known as gas diffusion electrodes (GDE), with improved mass transport kinetics, consist of a Macro Porous Substrate (MPS), a Micro Porous Layer (MPL) and the Catalyst Layer (CL), the latter consisting of a CO2 reduction catalyst and a polymeric binder.

Among varying many other parameters through which the GDE can be optimized to facilitate the electroreduction of CO2 efficiently, altering the porosity, hydrophobicity, and thickness of all three components display the most important ones.

“It’s important to design the right GDE structure in order to avoid the flooding and therefore loss of stability and activity” says Luca Riillo, Junior Researcher at De Nora.

In the ECO2Fuel project, we aim to provide an optimized GDE with high stability, performance, and selectivity toward liquid e-fuels.

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How we guarantee durable and efficient CO2 electrolysis at scale – The role of porous transport and gas diffusion layers

Headquartered in Zwevegem, Belgium, NV Bekaert SA has remained one of the industrial partners directly involved in the ECO2FUEL project. For several years, Bekaert has been an active component supplier of metal-based porous transport layers (PTL) and gas diffusion layers (GDL) for water electrolysis. Its strong ambition toward innovation and process know-how poises Bekaert to continue leveraging technology to create adjacent technologies and optimized applications.

Source: Bekaert

In the ECO2FUEL project, Bekaert contributes to the following areas:

– Investigate proposed electrolyzer design possibilities

– Develop Ni PTL continuous roll manufacturing process

– Understand the importance of optimized PTL/GDL designs

In terms of electrolysis cells, PTL/GDL is one of the most critical components of multiple functionalities facilitating the electrolysis process, including:

– Efficient, homogeneous mass transport and gas diffusion

– High electrical and thermal conductivity

– Low contact resistance for high interaction (between the catalysts and exchange membrane)

Source: Bekaert

One challenge the project presents demands the need for PTL/GDL to guarantee longevity and durability. Bekaert achieves this through optimal mechanical properties and improved resistance to corrosion. Although, for example, the proposed electrolyzer concept deposits the catalyst on the electrodes, the proposed PTL/GDL design facilitates a simplified and homogeneous coating. Therefore, an optimal product design and an efficient manufacturing process were proven essential to the proposal’s overall success.

As part of the ECO2Fuel project, Bekaert’s role in providing PTL/GDL designs was geared toward identification and evaluation for use as prototypes and upscaling. The manufacturing process for metal-based PTL/GDL consists of 3 steps:

– Manufacturing of metallic fibers (nickel anode)

– Randomly distributed/oriented green state porous fiber structure

– Fiber binding heat treatment

Source: Bekaert

Throughout the manufacturing process, Bekaert has developed and achieved methods to manipulate various aspects of metal fibers (i.e., diameter, porosity, thickness, multilayers, etc.). This success is due to Bekaert’s endeavor to test numerous production possibilities to identify the most efficient design possible. As a result, Bekaert’s design provides the foundation for the ECO2Fuel project to expand the PTL/GDL technology to a larger scale.

As part of their effort to optimize the operation even further, Bekaert continues investigating the impact of the catalyst coating process on the PTL (and vice versa). Typically, the application process involves the application of the coating directly onto the exchange membrane. However, the porous nature of the metallic structure poses unique challenges during the catalyst application. Due to the material’s inherent difficulties, this procedure requires the application of ink through a film coating or spray process. Bekaert utilizes lab-scale testing to investigate the impact on coating processes and identify optimization possibilities.

Looking toward the future, Bekaert plans to develop the manufacturing process further to supply Ni PTL in a continuous format. Although it is manufacturing large sheets, Bekaert intends to create a continuous structure to simplify the downstream process cost-efficiently. By developing such a process, Bekaert can successfully streamline the catalyst coating application process and reduce PTL scrap.

Reference: Currento® porous transport layer for hydrogen production – Bekaert.com

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The 2nd General Assembly Meeting took place in Valencia

Informative lectures, goal-oriented discussions and interactive workshops.

The project’s consortium met physically last week in Valencia, Spain, for its second general assembly meeting to discuss the status of the activities and to plan the next steps to meet the project’s objectives.

Project coordinator Dr. Schwan Hosseiny (DLR, Germany) started the meeting with a presentation about the current management status, followed by the work package presentations that the respective leaders held. The partners shared achievements and highlights, discussed important topics, and defined the next steps toward achieving the project goals.

The project meeting was complemented with two workshops: On day 1 Pieterjan Debergh and Dr. Metin Bulut from VITO (Belgium) organized a workshop on the ECO2Fuel value chain. Its purpose; working out each step of the value chain and define the benchmark applications (i.e., transport fuel and peak power). A proper definition of the value chain and benchmarks is essential to conduct the techno-economic and life cycle assessment. On day 2 Antonello Fiorucci from META (Italy) closed with a dissemination and exploitation strategy workshop.

The physical meeting highlighted once again how important in-person meetings are for interactive discussions and efficient and quick decision-making.

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Submit your work on CO2 Electrolysis! Deadline 10 March 2023

We are extremely proud to be selected as guest editors for the special issue “Applied Techniques for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction” of the journal energies (Impact Factor 3.252).

We are looking forward to receiving your high-quality communications, research papers and review articles that address primarily the applied science side of CO2 electrolysis, ranging from electrode and membrane fabrication, long-term studies, full-cell experiments, CO2 electrolysis stack design, and complete CO2 electrolysis systems.

The editorial board of this special issue consist of ECO2Fuel consortium members:

Dr. Sabrina Campagna Zignani

Dr. Sara Goberna Ferron

Prof. Dr. Hermenegildo García 

Prof. Dr. Qingfeng Li 

Dr. Seyed Schwan Hosseiny

About the special issue: 

The reduction in CO2 emissions to prevent severe climate change is one of the most urgent challenges of the 21st century. The electrification of the transport, building, and industry sectors with green, renewable electricity has proven to tackle this human made dilemma effectively. However, some parts of these sectors, such as long-haul applications for freight, marine transport, aviation and some district heat and high heat processes, are not electrifiable and rely on carbon-based fuels.

Furthermore, many industrial products are based on fossils. Apart from biomass, which will always compete with food production, CO2 is a promising green carbon source that can be reconverted to carbon-neutral fuels or chemicals and fed back into a circular economy with no additional CO2 emissions if renewable energy such as wind or solar is used.

Especially, single-step electrochemical CO2 reduction bears great potential to allow economical and efficient production of carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals. However, significant challenges in process efficiency, cell design, electrode fabrication, and long-term operation must be addressed.

Therefore, in this Special Issue, we would like to discuss and report new results and bottlenecks towards applied techniques for single-step electrochemical CO2 reduction. The transition from potential materials on the small lab scale to the fabrication of well-performing systems concerning efficiency, selectivity, and stability will interest the community.

We aim to attract high-quality communications, research papers and review articles that address primarily the applied science side of CO2 electrolysis, ranging from electrode and membrane fabrication, long-term studies, full-cell experiments, CO2 electrolysis stack design, and complete CO2 electrolysis systems.

Click here for further information and to submit.

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