FlowPhotoChem platform for sustainable chemical production
sustainable development goals. Alongside developing the technology, researchers in the project are also considering its environmental impact. “We are conducting life cycle analysis of the different components, looking at the environmental impact of the catalysts, membranes and the reactors,” outlines Dr Farràs. This spans everything from the sourcing of material precursors, right through to the eventual recycling of a material. “The analysis is very comprehensive. We have been working on different types of catalysts, and our partners are able to identify which have a smaller environmental footprint,” stresses Dr Farràs. “Recyclability is also important. These factors are considered in the process of selecting the best candidates.”
implications for the chemicals industry, and Dr Farràs is keen to heighten awareness of the technology, including in Africa. “We have a partner in Uganda. Last year we organised a workshop there with several stakeholders, to explain what the project is about,” he says. A follow-up workshop is planned for next year in the Ugandan capital Kampala at which Dr Farràs hopes to be able to highlight results from tests on the integrated system and describe the potential of the project’s technology in terms of meeting the growing demand for ethylene, hydrogen and other chemicals in Africa in a sustainable way. The PEC and PC reactors, in particular, could play an important role in enabling the distributed production of chemicals, believes Dr Farràs. “Large-scale
We aim to show that the FlowPhotoChem system can produce ethylene, then we want to prove that the system is sufficiently flexible to produce a wide range of products.
Current methods of producing platform chemicals like ethylene lead to the creation of a significant amount of pollution. Researchers in the FlowPhotoChem project are working to develop a new, more sustainable method of producing platform chemicals using carbon dioxide and concentrated sunlight, as Dr Pau Farràs explains. Platform chemicals are the initial chemical compounds used to produce a variety of different materials in the manufacturing industry, and are used, for example, in the production of plastics and cosmetics. The vast majority of these platform chemicals are currently produced using fossil fuels, yet with the sustainability of existing methods an increasingly prominent concern, research into alternatives is widely recognised as a major priority. As the coordinator of the EU-funded FlowPhotoChem project, Dr Pau Farràs is working to develop a new, more environmentally friendly method of producing these largely carbon-based platform chemicals. “Instead of taking carbon from oil and gas, we’re looking to use carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial processes or the atmosphere,” he explains. The project is focused at this stage on producing a platform chemical called ethylene, which is currently produced by essentially destroying ethanol. “When we remove water from ethanol, we produce ethylene,” outlines Dr Farràs. “Ethylene is used to produce different types of polyethylene, one of the world’s most commonly produced plastics.” FlowPhotoChem project Researchers in the project are now working to develop three modular flow reactors, in
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order to deliver a more sustainable approach to producing platform chemicals. “Firstly, we aim to show that the system can produce ethylene, then we want to prove that the system is sufficiently flexible to produce a wide range of products,” says Dr Farràs. The overall system itself consists of three technologies; a photoelectrochemical reactor (PEC), a photocatalytic reactor (PC) and an electrochemical reactor (EC). “We can target different types of products with each of these reactors. This flexibility means that we can widen the variety of products we can produce even further by combining the reactors in different ways,” continues Dr Farràs. The first step however is to demonstrate the ability to produce ethylene, using concentrated sunlight, water and CO2. One part of this work involves developing solar concentrators, which function in a similar way to a hall of mirrors. “The concentrators essentially focus sunlight onto a single point. You can concentrate the intensity of the light to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the design,” outlines Dr Farràs. The sunlight is converted into energy, driving chemical reactions which are then used to produce ethylene. “We envisaged three different pathways to producing ethylene. The most feasible at the moment is to use the PEC reactor to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.
Then the PC reactor will combine CO2 and hydrogen to produce carbon monoxide (CO), which is fed into the EC reactor to generate ethylene,” continues Dr Farràs. Much of the project’s attention is centered on developing new, more durable catalysts for these three different reactors. Computational chemistry techniques are being used to design effective catalysts, an approach which Dr Farràs says can help speed up development. “If we know what characteristics and structure we want from a material, then we can use simulations to identify the catalysts with the most potential,” he explains. Another major challenge being addressed in the project is combining reactor testing with material design. “We want to see how the whole reactor works, using only simulations and models,” says Dr Farràs. “One of our partners in the project is working on computational models of different materials. Calculations of different parameters can then be fed into a model of the reactor so we can see what’s going on with that material, right down from the atomistic scale.”
The ultimate goal is to bring the reactors to practical application and transform the way chemicals are produced, with researchers aiming to produce a demonstrator of the integrated system by the end of the project at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5. With the project set to conclude in 2024, researchers are now working to demonstrate the effectiveness of the reactors and to validate scaled-up versions. The PC reactor is currently the focus of the work. “Once we have shown that the PC reactor is working as we expect, we can start looking to integrate the three reactors and conduct the testing. We plan to bring the different elements together and show that we can produce ethylene,” continues Dr Farràs. This work holds important
EPFL solar concentrator
production facilities and infrastructure require large investments. The technology that we are developing is designed for small- or mediumscale distributed production,” he explains. These attributes are well-suited to the African continent, and Dr Farràs is keen to explore the technology’s wider potential as a means to use solar energy to produce valuable chemicals using a flexible, integrated system of reactors. In addition to ethylene, the team also see huge potential for generating other products with the reactors, like green hydrogen and oxygen. “The technology we are developing can become a game-changer in regions with abundant solar resources, where the electricity network is underdeveloped and distributed production manufacturing has a clear competitive advantage,” he says.
FlowPhotoChem Heterogenous Photo(electro)catalysis in Flow using Concentrated Light: modular integrated designs for the production of useful chemicals
Project Objectives
The FlowPhotoChem project aims to develop new, more sustainable methods of manufacturing chemicals using CO2 and sunlight, potentially replacing the fossil fuels used in production today. This work involves combining several different innovations, with the project bringing together leading research and development teams from across Europe.
Project Funding
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 862453.
Project Partners
The FlowPhotoChem project has a total of 15 partners from 8 different countries. https://www.flowphotochem.eu/partners/
Contact Details
Project Coordinator, Dr Pau Farràs, University of Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland H91 TK33 T: +353 91 524411 E: pau.farras@universityofgalway.ie W: https://www.flowphotochem.eu/
Dr Pau Farràs
Photo by Gerard Reilly.
Dr Pau Farràs is an Associate Professor in Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Galway, where he created the ChemLight group, focusing on the preparation of molecules and materials capable to drive light-driven reactions for the production of fuels and chemicals. The group studies nanomaterials, organometallic complexes and hybrid systems for their application in energy and health.
Sustainable development goals The wider backdrop to this research is the aim of producing commercially important chemicals in a more environmentally friendly way, in line with European climate targets and
EU Research
www.euresearcher.com
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