Richmond, Va. (Sept. 9, 2024) — Researchers at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) have demonstrated breakthrough technology capable of producing propane from carbon dioxide (CO2) and electricity from intermittent renewables such as wind and solar with unprecedented efficiency. The project has been selected by the US Department of Energy's (DoE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) program to receive $3,853,707 in funding through the Grid-free Renewable Energy Enabling New Ways to Economical Liquids and Long-term Storage (GREENWELLS) initiative.
"We have been pursuing renewable propane pathways that can produce fuel with a potential carbon intensity significantly below zero, and this project will show it can be done at scale," said Tucker Perkins, president and CEO of the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), which is providing an active advisory role on the project. "We're seeing huge demand for renewable propane to lower carbon emissions, particularly in hard-to-abate industries like transportation and port operations. This technology could be a key to turbo-charging supply to meet that demand."
The IIT project team aims to showcase the process on a kilowatt scale (equivalent to processing of up to 4 kilograms per day of propane) utilizing a system of multiple carbon dioxide electrolyzer stacks. By employing multiple stacks, the configuration permits operation within 1-100% of its capacity, accommodating intermittent and variable power supplies. The full process will result in an unprecedented 97% propane selectivity.
"This is a negative-carbon process, using only captured CO2, water, and renewable electricity as inputs," said Dr. Mohammad Asadi, the lead researcher on the project. "We believe that when this technology is scaled up, it will produce renewable propane at a lower carbon intensity than any other current pathway while remaining cost-competitive with conventional propane."
Most renewable propane commercially available today is recovered as a byproduct during the production of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which commonly use waste fats, oils, and greases as feedstocks. PERC views "on-purpose" renewable propane production as a beneficial step forward for the propane industry and the industries it supports.
"Of all the pathways we have identified for producing renewable propane, none have approached the 97% propane selectivity Dr. Asadi and his colleagues have demonstrated," said Dr. Sai Satish Guda, research and development manager at PERC. "It is an extraordinarily efficient process, converting almost all the raw materials into the final product. Ultimately, that will mean less costs associated with separating byproducts from the resulting propane."
GTI Energy is an active research partner in the project, providing technical support and third-party verification of results. Netherlands-based SHV Energy is also a partner, assisting in bringing the technology to market.
The GREENWELLS initiative aims to develop processes for harnessing intermittent renewable energy sources like wind and solar to produce liquids for sustainable fuels or chemicals and their precursors. According to DoE, creating new opportunities to harness renewables off-grid is critical for achieving net zero by 2050.
The IIT project is one of 14 projects nationwide selected to receive a total of $41 million in GREENWELLS funding in 2024.
