Braskem and Northwestern University to develop technology to convert CO2 from industrial operations

In Brazil, Braskem and Northwestern University (USA) have announced a partnership to develop a technology platform for converting the CO2 generated by industrial operations. It is based on co-electrolysis, a technology that makes full use of electricity to convert CO2 into products of interest.

In typical electrochemical devices, apart from CO2 conversion, water is converted into oxygen, which has no high commercial value. However, in this new strategy, two reactions of interest occur at the same time, resulting in greater productivity of the system, which creates intermediate chemicals and/or final products for commercial interest applications.

The project, currently in the development stage, aims to build a versatile and modular system with high energy efficiency. In addition to efficiency gains, this approach enables the transformation of a higher volume of CO2, substantially contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gases. The laboratory-scale development stage, which began one year ago, is expected to advance considerably in the three years of the cooperation agreement, with the potential for scaling up and use in industrial applications after the technology is validated.