The Feedstocks
OCOchem’s Carbon Flux Electrolyzer device emulates the principle of photosynthesis by converting carbon dioxide, water, and energy into organic material (formate) and oxygen (co-product). The primary difference is that OCO’s process makes liquid formate rather than carbohydrates and uses zero-carbon electricity from any source, not just solar energy. For every unit of formate made, an equal amount of CO2 is used.
OCOchem operates two parallel fully instrumented 100cm² electrolyzer test stations to rapidly test and compare design and component changes to achieve iterative performance optimization commercial targets for customers.
The Carbon FluX Electrolyzer TM
CO2, water and electricity are catalytically converted into a formate-rich product stream using a patented OCOchem developed device called the Carbon FluX ElectrolyzerTM. The Carbon FluX ElectrolyzerTM operates at room temperature and pressure and uses abundant tin metal as its catalyst. Formate products, like formic acid, are then concentrated using OCOchem’s proprietary extractive distillation process, to achieve desired commercial grade purity levels. Multiple electrolyzer cells are side-stacked together in series to produce a desired production volume.
In a single Carbon FluX ElectrolyzerTM cell, CO2 is absorbed and hydrogenated in an electrolyte solution at a catalyst site on the cathode to make formate. Formate is separated from water to achieve commercial grade concentration using OCOchem’s proprietary set of extractive distillation processes.
