Electrochemical Reduction for Hydrogenation of Organic Chemicals

TECHNOLOGY LICENSING OPPORTUNITY

Electrochemical Reduction for Hydrogenation of Organic Chemicals

This technology is an electrochemical reduction process for upgrading biomass-derived molecules to fuels that provides a unique alternative for fossil fuels with significantly increased energy efficiency.

Figure 1: Platform molecules derived from petrochemicals vs. biomass

Opportunity:   Idaho National Laboratory (INL), managed and operated by Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC (BEA), is offering the opportunity to enter into a license and/or collaborative research agreement to commercialize this electrochemical cell design.  

Overview:        This technology is a new process for upgrading biomass-derived molecules to fuels or chemicals that provides a unique alternative for the substitution of fossil sources with renewables. The most studied and developed current technology for the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived platform molecules (BDPM) is catalytic hydrotreatment. However, this process requires large amounts of hydrogen, normally produced from fossil natural gas, at high pressures and high temperatures. INL’s process is an electrochemical reduction that only requires electricity as an energy input, therefore it can be directly supplied by renewable and carbon free energy sources.

Description:    Electrochemical reduction (ECR) is one of the upgrading technologies that only requires electricity as the energy input and can be powered by carbon free energy sources. ECR does not require external addition of hydrogen, as this can be generated in situ. In this process, an anion exchange membrane (AEM) membrane electrode assembly (MEA) has been tested for the efficient reduction of biomass-derived molecules and compared with a cation exchange membrane (CEM) MEA.

Benefits:          Benefits include:

• Only requires electricity to operate
• Uses water as hydrogen source instead of hydrogen protons
• 79% efficiencies
• These benefits result in lower cost and increased energy efficiency

Applications:   Applications include

• Biomass fuels and chemicals

Development Status:  TRL 2-3. Proof-of-concept is ongoing.

IP Status:        US Patent Application No. 16/529,298, “Methods for Electrochemical Hydrogenation and Methods of Forming Membrane Electrode Assemblies,” BEA Docket No. BA-945.

Additional Information

Publication: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.8b00650

INL is seeking to license the above intellectual property to a company with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Exclusive rights in defined fields of use may be available.

Please visit Technology Deployment’s website at https://inl.gov/inl-initiatives/technology-deployment for more information on working with INL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process.

Companies interested in learning more about this licensing opportunity should contact Ryan Bills at td@inl.gov or 208-526-1896.