(433b) Analysis of a Novel Porous Bi-Functional Polymer Catalyst for CO2 Conversion to Formic Acid: Techno-Economic Analysis and Life Cycle Assessment

To decarbonize the U.S. economy, technological innovations are required in the manufacturing sector to reduce the CO₂ emissions associated with the current practices. To this purpose, a novel polymer-based ruthenium catalyst is developed for the capture and conversion of CO₂ in industrial flue gas. This work presents the design and systems-level performance analysis for the thermochemical conversion of the captured CO₂ to formic acid. Based on the experiment, a power law kinetic data was developed which was employed in a flow reactor in computing CO₂ conversion and product distribution. Two scenarios that consider different sources of hydrogen for formic acid production were evaluated: conventional steam methane reformer and renewable-powered electrolysis hydrogen. The designs were modeled in Aspen Plus v14 for the estimation of materials and energy flows. Utilizing the converged flowsheet data, a techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment were conducted to ascertain the financial feasibility and environmental impact of the proposed CO₂-based formic acid. Performance metrics such as energy and CO₂ conversion efficiencies, minimum formic acid selling price, and cost of CO₂ avoided were computed which were compared to the conventional and electrochemical routes of formic acid production. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the impacts of a set of design and economic parameters used in the study.