Developing sustainable pathways to ethylene — among the world’s most widely used chemicals — is a key element in decarbonizing the process industries. A new electrolysis technology developed by CERT Systems (Toronto, Ont., Canada; www.co2cert.com) can produce ethylene from CO2 and water, splitting the CO2 molecule and reforming it into ethylene using renewable energy (diagram). “Our Direct CO2 Electrolysis technology is the only single-step process to generate sustainable ethylene. Other processes to convert CO2 into ethylene require a separate source of hydrogen or an intermediate feedstock, such as syngas or ethanol. Our process only requires CO2 and water as reactants, reducing complexity and cost,” explains Alex Ip, co-founder and CEO of CERT Systems. Similar to the production of “green” hydrogen via water electrolysis, the process depends on a membrane electrode assembly and an electrocatalyst to facilitate the ethylene and oxygen evolution reactions. Unlike most water-electrolysis systems, notes Ip, CERT’s catalysts do not require any precious metals.
CERT’s technology is designed to be agnostic to the source of CO2, meaning that industrial emissions or atmospheric CO2 can be successfully converted into ethylene. The process’ emissions-processing performance was first demonstrated in the field at Shepard Energy Centre natural-gas power plant in Calgary, Alta., Canada. “This was the first time that industrial emissions had been converted into ethylene. We were able to convert up to 100 kg of CO2 per day in this project,” says Ip. The company recently began a research partnership with global chemicals manufacturer AGC, Inc. (Tokyo, Japan; www.agc.com) to further develop the technology for commercial use. “AGC is seeking ways to convert their process emissions into feedstocks that they currently need to buy, including ethylene. Our technology can help reduce their emissions while generating their own feedstocks internally,” adds Ip.
The next steps in scaling the technology will be to expand the system’s range of tolerance for different feed compositions and moving to a commercial-scale pilot plant following funding. Beyond decarbonizing ethylene-based processes, the company plans to apply its technology to other chemical pathways, such as the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).