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.