What would it take for renewably powered electrosynthesis to displace petrochemical processes?
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31023896.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.aav3506.
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Abstract
Electrocatalytic transformation of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) and water into chemical feedstocks offers the potential to reduce carbon emissions by shifting the chemical industry away from fossil fuel dependence. We provide a technoeconomic and carbon emission analysis of possible products, offering targets that would need to be met for economically compelling industrial implementation to be achieved. We also provide a comparison of the projected costs and CO<sub>2</sub> emissions across electrocatalytic, biocatalytic, and fossil fuel-derived production of chemical feedstocks. We find that for electrosynthesis to become competitive with fossil fuel-derived feedstocks, electrical-to-chemical conversion efficiencies need to reach at least 60%, and renewable electricity prices need to fall below 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. We discuss the possibility of combining electro- and biocatalytic processes, using sequential upgrading of CO<sub>2</sub> as a representative case. We describe the technical challenges and economic barriers to marketable electrosynthesized chemicals.