Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations
Abstract Electrooxidation of biomass platforms provides a sustainable route to produce valuable oxygenates, but the practical implementation is hampered by the severe carbon loss stemming from inherent instability of substrates and/or intermediates in alkaline electrolyte, especially under high conc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-09-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41497-y |
| _version_ | 1797557866454843392 |
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| author | Hua Zhou Yue Ren Bingxin Yao Zhenhua Li Ming Xu Lina Ma Xianggui Kong Lirong Zheng Mingfei Shao Haohong Duan |
| author_facet | Hua Zhou Yue Ren Bingxin Yao Zhenhua Li Ming Xu Lina Ma Xianggui Kong Lirong Zheng Mingfei Shao Haohong Duan |
| author_sort | Hua Zhou |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Electrooxidation of biomass platforms provides a sustainable route to produce valuable oxygenates, but the practical implementation is hampered by the severe carbon loss stemming from inherent instability of substrates and/or intermediates in alkaline electrolyte, especially under high concentration. Herein, based on the understanding of non-Faradaic degradation, we develop a single-pass continuous flow reactor (SPCFR) system with high ratio of electrode-area/electrolyte-volume, short duration time of substrates in the reactor, and separate feeding of substrate and alkaline solution, thus largely suppressing non-Faradaic degradation. By constructing a nine-stacked-modules SPCFR system, we achieve electrooxidation of glucose-to-formate and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)-to-2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) with high single-pass conversion efficiency (SPCE; 81.8% and 95.8%, respectively) and high selectivity (formate: 76.5%, FDCA: 96.9%) at high concentrations (formate: 562.8 mM, FDCA: 556.9 mM). Furthermore, we demonstrate continuous and kilogram-scale electrosynthesis of potassium diformate (0.7 kg) from wood and soybean oil, and FDCA (1.17 kg) from HMF. This work highlights the importance of understanding and suppressing non-Faradaic degradation, providing opportunities for scalable biomass upgrading using electrochemical technology. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:22:21Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4e677ce74e5f43f59ab6e08f9eef9385 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T17:22:21Z |
| publishDate | 2023-09-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-4e677ce74e5f43f59ab6e08f9eef93852023-11-20T10:18:05ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-09-0114111210.1038/s41467-023-41497-yScalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformationsHua Zhou0Yue Ren1Bingxin Yao2Zhenhua Li3Ming Xu4Lina Ma5Xianggui Kong6Lirong Zheng7Mingfei Shao8Haohong Duan9State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyState Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyState Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyState Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyState Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyShandong Institute of Petroleum and Chemical TechnologyState Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyInstitute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of SciencesState Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, College of Chemistry, Beijing University of Chemical TechnologyDepartment of Chemistry, Tsinghua UniversityAbstract Electrooxidation of biomass platforms provides a sustainable route to produce valuable oxygenates, but the practical implementation is hampered by the severe carbon loss stemming from inherent instability of substrates and/or intermediates in alkaline electrolyte, especially under high concentration. Herein, based on the understanding of non-Faradaic degradation, we develop a single-pass continuous flow reactor (SPCFR) system with high ratio of electrode-area/electrolyte-volume, short duration time of substrates in the reactor, and separate feeding of substrate and alkaline solution, thus largely suppressing non-Faradaic degradation. By constructing a nine-stacked-modules SPCFR system, we achieve electrooxidation of glucose-to-formate and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF)-to-2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) with high single-pass conversion efficiency (SPCE; 81.8% and 95.8%, respectively) and high selectivity (formate: 76.5%, FDCA: 96.9%) at high concentrations (formate: 562.8 mM, FDCA: 556.9 mM). Furthermore, we demonstrate continuous and kilogram-scale electrosynthesis of potassium diformate (0.7 kg) from wood and soybean oil, and FDCA (1.17 kg) from HMF. This work highlights the importance of understanding and suppressing non-Faradaic degradation, providing opportunities for scalable biomass upgrading using electrochemical technology.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41497-y |
| spellingShingle | Hua Zhou Yue Ren Bingxin Yao Zhenhua Li Ming Xu Lina Ma Xianggui Kong Lirong Zheng Mingfei Shao Haohong Duan Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations Nature Communications |
| title | Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations |
| title_full | Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations |
| title_fullStr | Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations |
| title_short | Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations |
| title_sort | scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non faradaic transformations |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-41497-y |
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