Progress and Perspectives in Photo‐ and Electrochemical‐Oxidation of Biomass for Sustainable Chemicals and Hydrogen Production

Luo, Hui; Barrio, Jesús; Sunny, Nixon; Li, Alain; Steier, Ludmilla; Shah, Nilay; Stephens, Ifan E. L.; Titirici, Maria‐Magdalena

doi:10.1002/aenm.202101180

Cited by 251 publications

(225 citation statements)

References 480 publications

(693 reference statements)

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“… 141 Partial oxidation of biomass is of particular interest to replace the kinetics of the sluggish oxygen evolution reaction with that coupled with water electrolysis or CO 2 electrolysis. Intergration of biomass oxidation with an alkaline water electrolyzer significantly reduces the cell potential from 2 to 0.4 V 142 while maintaining the current density at 1 A cm –2 . Glycerol and glucose are two platform molecules among biomass derivatives that have been widely investigated using an electrochemical methodology.…”

Section: Opportunity In Electrosynthesis To Decarbonize the Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Electrochemical Processes to Decarbonize the Chemical Industry

Rong

Overa

Jiao

2022

JACS Au

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Electrification is a potential approach to decarbonizing the chemical industry. Electrochemical processes, when they are powered by renewable electricity, have lower carbon footprints in comparison to conventional thermochemical routes. In this Perspective, we discuss the potential electrochemical routes for chemical production and provide our views on how electrochemical processes can be matured in academic research laboratories for future industrial applications. We first analyze the CO 2 emission in the manufacturing industry and conduct a survey of state of the art electrosynthesis methods in the three most emission-intensive areas: petrochemical production, nitrogen compound production, and metal smelting. Then, we identify the technical bottlenecks in electrifying chemical productions from both chemistry and engineering perspectives and propose potential strategies to tackle these issues. Finally, we provide our views on how electrochemical manufacturing can reduce carbon emissions in the chemical industry with the hope to inspire more research efforts in electrifying chemical manufacturing.

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Section: Opportunity In Electrosynthesis To Decarbonize the Industrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Emerging Electrochemical Processes to Decarbonize the Chemical Industry

Rong

Overa

Jiao

2022

JACS Au

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“…In 2015, the United Nations adopted the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" [1] aiming at a low-carbon Alternatively, biomass electrolysis, which is still at its infancy, offers the possibility to co-produce hydrogen and high-value chemicals with lower thermodynamic requirements compared to water electrolysis. [32] From techno-economic and life cycle assessment (LCA) analyses emerged that among the most relevant drawbacks of this strategy, there is that the market is not sufficiently mature for giving a space to oxidation products. [32] It is worthy to notice that conventional fossil-based industrial technologies are set to produce high-pressure hydrogen; this is also associated with major concerns regarding its transportation safety, storage, and utilization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[32] From techno-economic and life cycle assessment (LCA) analyses emerged that among the most relevant drawbacks of this strategy, there is that the market is not sufficiently mature for giving a space to oxidation products. [32] It is worthy to notice that conventional fossil-based industrial technologies are set to produce high-pressure hydrogen; this is also associated with major concerns regarding its transportation safety, storage, and utilization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs) as H‐Source for Bio‐Derived Fuels and Additives Production

Valentini

Marrocchi

Vaccaro

2022

Advanced Energy Materials

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consumption combined with a resource efficient circular economy approach, with the final goal of minimizing the impact of health, safety, security and environment.In the design of a greener future, the replacement of depleting sources with renewable ones is at the center of a sustainable development. [2] Biomass is a natural, abundant, renewable, carbon-neutral source; its use represents a promising strategy to address the need for substituting fossil feedstock in the preparation of chemicals, fuels, and materials, besides energy production. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] The major issues that limit the large-scale utilization of biomass in fuel production are the differences in cost and process efficiencies compared to those for fossil fuels. [15] After the Covid-19 crisis, this aspect has become even more evident, as reported by the International Agency of Energy, ultimately causing the first contraction in biofuel production over the past two decades. [16] The reduced transport fuel demand and the decreased petroleum-based fuel prices have transitorily lowered the economic interest for biofuel production. In this pandemic and emergency scenario, therefore, has emerged even more clearly the importance of developing efficient strategies for biomass conversion into fuels, making economically attractive the use of environmentally friendly renewable energy systems (Figure 1). [17] Among the plethora of biomass transformations, hydrogenation and hydrodeoxygenation reactions are widely used for decreasing the oxygen content of biomass-derived platforms to increase their potential as fuels. [18][19][20] In this context, as well as in the challenging goal of creating a decarbonized energy system, hydrogen plays a prominent role in the chemical industry. [21][22][23][24] It is important to notice that the vast majority of the worldwide hydrogen production (45-65 Mt/year) features a significant CO 2 footprint as a consequence of different hydrocarbon reforming processes (i.e., steam-reforming of fossil fuels, thermal cracking of natural gas, solar-thermal reforming of methane) or of coal gasification. [25] Several efforts have been directed during the past years toward the definition of possible effective approaches to a green H 2 production by water splitting. [26][27][28][29][30][31] To date, however, both water electrolysis and photo-driven water splitting are economically and energetically unfavorable, with a long way ahead to hold the promise of a zero-carbon energy system. Indeed, the associated energy demand as well as the low market prices of oxygen, inevitably co-produced from water electrolysis, hinder the shaping of a large-scale employment of this technology.Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) are attractive materials for their ability to generate in situ hydrogen that may be directly used to produce target biofuel precursors, fuels or fuel additives. Indeed, the replacement of fossil feedstock is an urgent necessity for shifting toward a carbon neutral energy economy. Several desired chemica...

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“…An advantage of this reaction system is that the anode reaction substrate is the water solvent itself, which is remarkably simple and convenient. However, the standard potential for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode is as high as 1.23 V [2], and even the most advanced electrocatalysts currently require an overpotential of 0.35-0.4 V to achieve current densities greater than 50 mA cm −2 . Given that oxygen can be easily acquired by the air separation method, the energy consumption of the present reaction system is predominantly utilized in the production of oxygen with little economic value.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paired Electrolysis of Acrylonitrile and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural for Simultaneous Generation of Adiponitrile and 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid

Chen

et al. 2022

Catalysts

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The classic acrylonitrile (AN) electrohydrodimerization (EHD) to adiponitrile (ADN) process produces oxygen on the anode side. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is energy consuming, and O2 is of low value and has security issues while directly contacting with organic molecules. Herein, by replacing OER with 5-hydroxymethylfurfural oxidation reaction (HMFOR), we report paired electrolysis of AN and HMF for simultaneous generation of ADN and 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA). On the anode side, the electrodeposited amorphous NiMoP film-covered nickel foam efficiently boosted HMFOR activity by enlarging the electrochemically active surface area (ECSA) via in situ selective removal of Mo and P on the surface. On the cathode side, addition of dimethylformamide (DMF) as a cosolvent enhanced the reaction efficiency of ANEHD by forming a single-phase electrolyte that offers better interaction between AN and the electrode. The ANEHD–HMFOR paired system shows excellent generation rates of FDCA (0.018 gFDCA·h−1·cm−2) and ADN (0.017 gADN·h−1·cm−2) at a high cell current (160 mA). An amount of 1 kWh of electricity can produce 2.91 mol of ADN and 0.53 mol of FDCA with 107.1% Faraday efficiency.

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Progress and Perspectives in Photo‐ and Electrochemical‐Oxidation of Biomass for Sustainable Chemicals and Hydrogen Production

Cited by 251 publications

References 480 publications

Emerging Electrochemical Processes to Decarbonize the Chemical Industry

Emerging Electrochemical Processes to Decarbonize the Chemical Industry

Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs) as H‐Source for Bio‐Derived Fuels and Additives Production

Paired Electrolysis of Acrylonitrile and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural for Simultaneous Generation of Adiponitrile and 2,5-Furandicarboxylic Acid

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