Carbon negative mono ethylene glycol via modular electrocatalytic CO2 utilization technology

Overview

RenewCO2 has developed a modular electrocatalytic carbon utilization technology (eCUT) that converts concentrated CO2 waste streams into mono ethylene glycol (MEG), a widely used industrial chemical. The technology is designed to integrate directly with existing fossil-based MEG production facilities, capturing their concentrated CO2 waste output and transforming it into carbon negative MEG at cost competitive prices, with oxygen generated as a byproduct.

This approach addresses a critical challenge in industrial decarbonization: rather than requiring entirely new production infrastructure, the eCUT module retrofits into established MEG plants, minimizing the capital investment needed to scale and deploy. By turning a waste liability into a value added product, the technology offers chemical manufacturers a pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining or improving cost competitiveness.

Technical specifications

Key features:

• Proprietary catalyst delivering >90% faradaic efficiency, meaning more than 90% of electrons introduced into the electrolyzer contribute directly to MEG production
• High selectivity of >92% toward MEG, with the balance consisting of intermediates that can be separated and recycled for complete conversion
• Trivial product separation that does not consume significant energy, thanks to the high selectivity profile
• Modular design that integrates with existing MEG facilities, leveraging their concentrated, pure CO2 waste streams
• Dual output producing both carbon negative MEG and oxygen as a byproduct

How it works:

The system uses an electrochemical reduction process powered by the proprietary catalyst. Unlike competing electrochemical CO2 reduction approaches that rely on different catalysts and struggle with either low faradaic efficiency or poor product selectivity (requiring energy intensive separation), RenewCO2's process achieves both high efficiency and high selectivity simultaneously. This combination is what enables cost competitive production.

Technology readiness level

The technology has been validated at laboratory scale, demonstrating both the high faradaic efficiency and high MEG selectivity that underpin the cost competitive carbon negative production claim. The next development milestone is scaling from a single 100 cm² cell to a 5x500 cm² cell stack capable of extended operation. This larger lab scale will produce a few kilograms of MEG per day for applications testing while providing critical data on catalyst robustness and tolerance to CO2 impurities. The technology is at an early-to-mid stage of development, progressing from bench scale validation toward larger scale demonstration and eventual commercial deployment in partnership with MEG producers.