Feasibility and sustainability of emerging CCU pathways for formic acid production

Abstract

CO₂ conversion into chemicals is of paramount importance in the valorization of CCU processes; therefore, studying various chemical synthesis pathways is indispensable to investigate their feasibility and sustainability. In this work, thermo-catalytic and electrochemical reduction routes of formic acid production processes using CO₂ were analyzed for comparative techno-economic viability and environmental friendliness compared to the conventional route under different scenarios with a consistent set of assumptions, methodology and level of details. The thermo-catalytic pathway revealed consistently lower levelized cost of production (LCP) in all the examined scenarios compared to the electrochemical reduction pathway. The best-case scenario of the thermo-catalytic pathway also indicated that the thermo-catalytic pathway can be a competitive alternative to the conventional pathway with a slightly lower LCP (1.05%) and considerably lower carbon footprint (38.8%). The thermo-catalytic pathway consistently demonstrated lower carbon footprint results compared to both the conventional and electrochemical reduction pathways. For instance, the base-case thermo-catalytic pathway showed 38.8% and 68.5% lower carbon footprints compared to the conventional and electrochemical pathways, respectively. Notably, the CO₂ source significantly affected the global warming index (GWI) compared to the sources of H₂ and electricity for the thermo-catalytic pathway. However, the electricity source significantly affected the GWI compared to the CO₂ source for the electrochemical reduction pathway.