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A Sustainable Chemicals Manufacturing Paradigm Using CO2 and Renewable H2

Bommareddy, Rajesh Reddy; Wang, Yanming; Pearcy, Nicole; Hayes, Martin; Lester, Edward; Minton, Nigel P.; Conradie, Alex V.

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Authors

Rajesh Reddy Bommareddy

NICOLE PEARCY Nicole.Pearcy@nottingham.ac.uk
Senior Research Fellow in Systems

Martin Hayes

Alex V. Conradie



Abstract

© 2020 The Author(s) The chemical industry must decarbonize to align with UN Sustainable Development Goals. A shift toward circular economies makes CO2 an attractive feedstock for producing chemicals, provided renewable H2 is available through technologies such as supercritical water (scH2O) gasification. Furthermore, high carbon and energy efficiency is paramount to favorable techno-economics, which poses a challenge to chemo-catalysis. This study demonstrates continuous gas fermentation of CO2 and H2 by the cell factory, Cupriavidus necator, to (R,R)-2,3-butanediol and isopropanol as case studies. Although a high carbon efficiency of 0.75 [(C-mol product)/(C-mol CO2)] is exemplified, the poor energy efficiency of biological CO2 fixation requires ∼8 [(mol H2)/(mol CO2)], which is techno-economically infeasible for producing commodity chemicals. Heat integration between exothermic gas fermentation and endothermic scH2O gasification overcomes this energy inefficiency. This study unlocks the promise of sustainable manufacturing using renewable feedstocks by combining the carbon efficiency of bio-catalysis with energy efficiency enforced through process engineering.

Citation

Bommareddy, R. R., Wang, Y., Pearcy, N., Hayes, M., Lester, E., Minton, N. P., & Conradie, A. V. (2020). A Sustainable Chemicals Manufacturing Paradigm Using CO2 and Renewable H2. iScience, 23(6), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101218

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 28, 2020
Online Publication Date Jun 2, 2020
Publication Date Jun 26, 2020
Deposit Date Nov 16, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal iScience
Electronic ISSN 2589-0042
Publisher Elsevier (Cell Press)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 23
Issue 6
Article Number 101218
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101218
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4597105
Publisher URL https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(20)30403-X?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS258900422030403X%3Fshowall%3Dtrue