Industrially integrated co-electrolysis and synthesis of high quality hydrocarbons

PROJECT BLOG (IN GERMAN)

► Article of June 2019 Special Newsletter Hydrogen + Fuel Cells on occasion of the f-cell 2019 (external link)

Project goals

An integrated process for the production of chemical materials from industrial exhaust gas flows and water is developed and technically demonstrated in the COLYSSY project.

The process chain consists of a high-temperature co-electrolysis with a power of 10 kW, a CO2 separation using ceramic membranes and a newly developed scalable reactor concept for the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The end product will be high quality liquid hydrocarbons such as synthetic waxes. Efficient interconnection and thermal integration of the elements can achieve an overall efficiency of over 50%. The installation and demonstration of the system takes place in a lime work of Johann Bergmann GmbH & Co. KG.

Application

As part of the development of a sustainable energy and raw material system, the use of renewable energies to provide chemical products of value is highly relevant. A possible carbon source could be unavoidable CO2 exhaust gas flows from industry, which can be found for example in the lime and cement industry. With the installation of the technology at a lime work, the process is applied under real conditions and provides practice-relevant results for further optimization.

As an alternative synthesis path for hydrocarbons the technology will be an attractive option, particularly in decentralized format. The economic viability is initially only given for high-quality products that affect niche markets but have a high market value. This facilitates market entry for the entire spectrum of Power-to-X technologies.