A techno-economic evaluation approach to the electrochemical reduction of CO2 for formic acid manufacture

Efforts to mitigate climate change require technological innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions together with the reduction of the consumption of natural resources in an economic way compared to conventional processes. This paper presents a prospective assessment of an alternative for carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization based on its electrochemical reduction (ER) to produce formic acid (FA). The methodology applied in the present study integrates a techno-economic assessment considering both the use of resources and a set of economic key process indicators versus the fossil-fuel based thermochemical conventional route. The results have demonstrated that the electricity consumption together with the consumables of the process (determined by the cathode lifetime) are the main contributors to the costs of production and therefore, to the profitability of the utilization plant. A sensitivity analysis was carried to evaluate the influence of the specific energy consumption in the profitability under a realistic ER approach. The results will assess the competitiveness of the production of FA by CO2 ER against the conventional manufacture in terms of economics. The study has demonstrated that the electrification of this kind of commodity production plants through inexpensive surpluses of renewable energy is needed for their future competitiveness.