A crew from Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Analysis – UFZ (Leipzig, Germany) has proven the scale-up of the manufacturing of aviation drop-in fuel-like mixtures (primarily n-decane) which might be obtained by Kolbe electrolysis of medium-chain carboxylic acids (n-hexanoic acid), which might be derived from biomass. A paper on their work seems within the journal Gas.
For mobility, particularly in aviation, cargo weight and quantity of the vitality vector are considerably extra restricted than in another type of transportation. Due to this fact, vitality vectors with excessive mass and quantity particular vitality density are wanted, for which carbon-based liquid fuels are unmatched. Concurrently, there may be an crucial of deriving these fuels from non-fossil sources.
… by descending order of know-how readiness stage (TRL), the next sorts of fuels incl. drop-in fuels and components are authorised for utilization in worldwide aviation: artificial paraffinic kerosene, hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids, alcohol-to-jet artificial paraffinic kerosene, hydroprocessed fermented sugar synthesized iso-paraffins, Fischer-Tropsch artificial paraffinic kerosene, pyrolysis oils and others. Not too long ago, we have now proven that advanced waste biomass might be transformed to fuel-like mixtures utilizing a mixed microbial and electrochemical conversion course of.
… The Kolbe electrolysis permits the electrochemical upgrading of MCCA [medium chain carboxylic acids] to a combination of hydrocarbons, primarily alkanes … utilizing the instance of n-hexanoic acid (C6) that was additionally used on this research.
… Right here we reveal course of feasibility in a commercially out there single stack electrolysis cell, making future utility of the Kolbe electrolysis doable as no additional switch from a tailored electrochemical cell to a commercially out there one that may be numbered up is critical.
—Rosa et al.
For his or her research, the researchers elevated the size to 1 L quantity and 100 cm2 electrode floor space inside a single stack electrolysis cell permitting simple numbering-up. The obtained electrolysis efficiency was “unprecedented” at technical scale, the authors stated, with a most n-decane manufacturing charge of 0.73 g L−1h−1 cm−2, a selectivity for n-decane between 76.3% and 97.8% and Coulombic efficiencies as much as 68%.
Sources
Luis F.M. Rosa, Katharina Röhring, Falk Harnisch (2023) “Electrolysis of medium chain carboxylic acids to aviation gasoline at technical scale,” Gas,
Quantity 356 doi: 10.1016/j.gasoline.2023.129590.