Glycerol and nItrogeN conversioN through electrochemistrY

The current climate crisis, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, urgently requires sustainable chemical processes.

Ammonia, a critical chemical for fertilizers as well as an emerging energy carrier, has a significant role in the transition to renewable energy due to its high hydrogen content and energy density. However, the conventional Haber-Bosch process for ammonia production is highly energy-consuming and polluting.

My ongoing ERC-StG is dealing with lithium-mediated electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (E-NRR) as a more sustainable pathway towards ammonia production, but we (as well as the overall scientific community) are facing challenges like low nitrogen solubility, poor selectivity, and dependence on critical raw materials (CRMs).

GINNY project proposal addresses a novel hybrid electrolyte system combining poly(ethylene oxide) and glycerol to boost nitrogen solubility, and the process is potassium-mediated, thus avoiding the use of lithium.

Additionally, GINNY integrates an anode process for the oxidation of glycerol, a biodiesel industry by-product that urgently needs strategies to be converted into high-value chemicals, like dihydroxyacetone and glyceric acid (key intermediates for pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals).Building on pioneering work from my ERC-StG project, as well as from our recent fundamental studies on potassium-based batteries, GINNY aims to obtain a new generation of flow-cell devices.

They will boost ammonia and useful chemicals production efficiency, through a sustainable and economically viable technology featuring CRMs-free components and reduced environmental impact.

Also exploiting a continuous interaction with two supporting companies, the dual-objective strategy of GINNY promises to significantly contribute to the global shift towards greener chemical processes.