SBIR Phase I: High-efficiency, electrified reverse-water gas shift for sustainable fuels production

SBIR 第一阶段：用于可持续燃料生产的高效电气化逆水煤气变换

• 批准号: 2304536
• 负责人: Branko Zugic
• 金额: $ 27.4万
• 依托单位: LYDIAN LABS, INC.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-11-15 至 2024-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2304536&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; efficiency; electrified; reverse

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will be to directly and immediately lower the long-term costs of e-fuels (electrofuels), or fuels derived from electricity, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. The e-fuels produced by the process represent an important alternative for fossil fuels in aviation, shipping, and other areas of transportation that are challenging to electrify. The societal impact of the system would allow low-carbon or even carbon-neutral, drop-in replacement e-fuels for fossil fuels. Applied at scale to the aviation sector, this technology could enable reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of roughly 1 Gigaton (Gt) annually. Extending e-fuels usage into additional sectors such as shipping and long-haul ground transportation could enable up to 3-5 Gt annual reductions in emissions. Commercially, the e-fuels developed in this project could provide a viable alternative for a multi-trillion-dollar market for fossil fuels in these sectors if they can be made cost effectively. The research would demonstrate a solution that can achieve substantially lower capital costs and operating costs of producing e-fuels. This SBIR Phase I project builds and demonstrates a bench-scale reactor for a high-temperature reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) process with electricity as the only energy source. Despite its potential to mitigate emissions, the RWGS reaction has not been widely deployed due to the high temperatures required and the difficulty in achieving uniformity within conventional chemical reactors. The micro-structured materials presented in the project have shown unprecedented reaction rates and process intensity in initial experiments at the lab-scale. The research will focus on improving these materials, and their durability and incorporating them into an integrated reactor system. The technical project will include: (1) developing a multi-scale model of the reactor to optimize the geometry of the reactor materials; (2) prototyping and fabricating the optimized reactor materials; (3) modifying the micro-structured materials with coatings and active metals as needed; and (4) testing of the reactor system to optimize the reaction. At the end of the project, the system will be ready for integration into a larger pilot-scale system that should unlock unprecedented cost reductions for carbon dioxide and hydrogen derived products and broader applications within green chemistry.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

该小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是直接立即降低电子燃料（电燃料）或源自电力、二氧化碳和氢气的燃料的长期成本。该工艺生产的电子燃料是航空、航运和其他难以实现电气化的运输领域中化石燃料的重要替代品。该系统的社会影响将允许使用低碳甚至碳中和的电子燃料替代化石燃料。该技术大规模应用于航空领域，每年可减少约 1 十亿吨 (Gt) 的温室气体排放。将电子燃料的使用扩展到航运和长途地面运输等其他行业，每年可减少高达 3-5 Gt 的排放量。在商业上，如果能够以成本效益的方式生产，该项目开发的电子燃料可以为这些行业价值数万亿美元的化石燃料市场提供可行的替代品。该研究将展示一种可以大幅降低电子燃料生产的资本成本和运营成本的解决方案。该 SBIR 第一阶段项目建造并演示了一个小型反应堆，用于以电力作为唯一能源的高温逆水煤气变换 (RWGS) 工艺。尽管RWGS反应具有减少排放的潜力，但由于所需的高温以及在传统化学反应器内难以实现均匀性，因此尚未得到广泛部署。该项目中提出的微结构材料在实验室规模的初步实验中显示出前所未有的反应速率和过程强度。该研究将侧重于改进这些材料及其耐用性，并将它们纳入集成反应堆系统中。该技术项目将包括：（1）开发反应堆的多尺度模型，以优化反应堆材料的几何形状； (2) 原型设计并制造优化的反应器材料； (3)根据需要用涂层和活性金属对微结构材料进行改性； (4) 测试反应器系统以优化反应。项目结束时，该系统将准备好集成到一个更大的中试规模系统中，该系统将前所未有地降低二氧化碳和氢气衍生产品的成本，并在绿色化学领域得到更广泛的应用。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并已通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，认为值得支持。