SunCoChem’s aproach for scaling-up a photo-electrocatalytic system presented at the 2nd FlowPhotoChem Workshop
SunCoChem’s technical coordinator and associate professor from Politecnico di Torino, Simelys Hernández, presented the project’s approach for scaling-up a photo-electrocatalytic system for CO2 capture and conversion to oxo-products at the 2nd Exploitation Workshop organised by FlowPhotoChem, and held online and in Kampala, Uganda, on 10-11 September 2024.
The presentation, entitled Scaling-up a “Photo-electrocatalytic System for CO2 Capture and Conversion to Oxo-products: the SunCoChem approach”, showcased the photo-electrochemical conversion technology used by the project as a solution to achieve carbon neutrality in the European Chemical Industry.
During the talk, the photo-electrocatalytic reactor developed within the project was presented as a compact and easily scalable design. The SunCoChem reactor, which demonstrated a solar-to-fuels efficiency close to 4%, was optimised and scaled-up in a modular system of total 0.2 m2 and was already tested at TRL4, under simulated sunlight conditions, for syngas production. The so produced CO2-containing syngas was successfully used as feedstock for the hydroformylation of butene and limonene, demonstrating a potential 99% of conversion and > 90% of selectivity to the linear aldehyde (Limoxal or Valderaldehyde, respectively).
SunCoChem project has stablished a new technological path to produce fine chemicals from CO2, and standardiseds protocol for the reproducible and scalable catalysts synthesis and preparation of BiVO4 photo-anodes and Cu-based gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) from 10 to 100 cm2. Further advances on the scaling-up of this technology will be demonstrated in a TRL5 for production of Limoxal from CO2 in October 2024 in Amposta facilities of EURECAT in Spain.
