Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions is an urgent global challenge. There is currently a lack of economic*incentive to capture industrial emissions as there is little value in the captured CO2. However, as renewable*electricity capacity continues to increase in scale while dropping in price, there exists an enormous opportunity*to use clean electricity to convert CO2 into products of value using electrocatalysis. Electrocatalysis enables the*synthesis of conventionally fossil-derived chemicals from CO2 feedstock; however, existing systems exhibit*poor performance and are not competitive with incumbent technologies.*We will develop new catalyst materials and systems to achieve high selectivity and efficiency for renewable*ethylene production. Ethylene is one of the most important petrochemicals in the world and has a market size*of approximately $200B.*This project will result in a process for the renewable electricity-powered synthesis of ethylene that is*economically competitive with conventional fossil-derived methods. This will help Canada reach its*greenhouse gas emission goals by providing a path towards decarbonization of the petrochemicals industry and*enabling the uptake of renewable electricity and carbon capture technologies.*This proposal was developed jointly with the industrial partners: TOTAL, a major integrated oil and gas*company headquartered in Paris, France having significant operations in Montreal; and also with its subsidiary,*Hutchinson, an aerospace and materials company based in Montreal. Our goal was to ensure relevance of the*project to Canadian industry, and specifically to ensure that the technology is compatible with*TOTAL/Hutchinson's petrochemical operations.