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.

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), Article 101218. 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: Nov 17, 2020
• Journal: iScience
• Electronic ISSN: 2589-0042
• Publisher: 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