ELOXYCHEM

ELOXYCHEM will establish a commercially relevant electrochemical oxidation process that will become a strategic development to replace existing chemical conversion processes that are heavily reliant on imported materials such as nitric acid and imported fossil-fuels such as natural gas.

ELOXYCHEM will promote a credible pathway for Europe’s twin transition (green and digital) by demonstrating:

(i) a new transformational electrochemical conversion platform process at a pilot scale (multiple tonnes per annum) consisting of reactors and downstream separation to final products with marketable specification to reliably achieve TRL6;

(ii) drop-in replacement technology for chemical conversion.

ELOXYCHEM will also optimise the process to demonstrate versatility of the process to multiple feedstocks ranging from current feedstocks and future bio-based and biogenic sources. Using AI strategies for optimisation the pilot plant will be targeted to improve electrochemical performance, improve lifetime and reduce cost; prove viability of integrating with renewable energy sources considering intermittency and potential to offer demand-response flexibility; integrate process design, including materials, reactor/cell, and separation methods, from the process intensification and cost perspectives.

ELOXYCHEM brings together a world leading consortium consisting of chemical/bulk material producers, manufacturers, and universities from across Europe to addresses the expected outcomes and achieve energy consumption savings of ~60% compared with existing processes.

ELOXYCHEM´s disruptive approach will help chemical industries transform their production process to reduce waste, use of harmful precursor chemicals, and become less energy intensive.

ELOXYCHEM will exploit the inherent advantages of Electrochemical oxidation processes (EOPs) combined with the opportunities offered by AI-based digital technologies to bring breakthrough, highly energy efficient processes to the EU chemicals sector.

The consortium includes leading electrochemical oxidation experts University of Mainz (JGU) and ESy-Labs (ESY), together with SINTEF for leading the process design and scale up of the electrochemical technologies to enable the implementation of fully integrated pilot-scale demonstrations with target production rates up to 3.4 tons/yr. Involvement of leading specialty chemicals and resins producers – Evonik (EVONIK) and Megara Resins (MEGARA) will pave the way for energy reductions of 60% compared to state-of-the-art thermochemical processes, with the materials produced from the novel electrochemical processes tested and validated in existing commercial formulations. Novel digital and AI-based technologies developed by Z-Prime (ZPR) will enable distributed process control and data driven optimization and planning, while Idener (IDE) will develop models to demonstrate the viability of integrating the electrochemical process with renewable energy sources, taking into account variability and fluctuations in power supply of up to 40%. Techno-economic analysis to be undertaken by SINTEF and IDE will prove the commercial viability of the process, complemented by environmental and social impact analyses by Imperial College London (ICL) to validate the environmental credentials of the ELOXYCHEM process. Iconiq Innovation (IIL) and ETA Florence (ETA) will lead on dissemination and communication, with IIL providing dedicated focus to innovation management and exploitation.