Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7), Responsible Consumption and Production (SDG 12)
A unified electrochemical approach for the conversion of biomass and waste plastic into valuable chemicals and hydrogen fuel at high current densities
Biswajit Mondal * Department of Chemistry, IIT Gandhinagar, Gujarat-382355, India. E-mail: mondal.biswajit@iitgn.ac.in
The electrochemical oxidation of lignocellulose and plastic waste to value-added chemicals represents a promising approach to addressing critical environmental challenges. However, selective oxidation to specific products at higher current densities remains challenging. Oxidative cleavage of C(OH)-C moiety of various lignocellulose and mixed biodegradable and bio-nondegradable plastics can be a tackling strategy. In this study, we demonstrated electrochemical oxidation with a monometallic Ni(O)O-H for cellulose-based biomass, a series of lignin-based model complexes, lignin-derived secondary alcohols (KA oil), mixed plastic wastes based on the O-H bond dissociation energy of the catalyst. The catalyst performs exceptionally well for the selective oxidation of cellulose and lignin-based model complexes like HMF and PED at 100 mA cm -2 with 87 – 100 % yield. KA oil oxidation to adipic acid with 54% yield was observed at a constant current electrolysis of 20 mA cm -2 . Also, plastic waste precursors having C(OH)-C bond oxidation were investigated using the same catalyst to selectively obtain the oxidized product. This was further applied to mixed plastic waste upgradation to generate formate and acetate with Faradaic efficiency of 66% and 74%, respectively, and 100% yield in terephthalic acid along with the co-production of hydrogen. Scheme 1 . Structural similarities between biomass and waste plastic and their electrochemical upgradation to valuable chemicals.
Key words: Electrocatalysis, Biomass, Plastic, Hydrogen, Nickel References 1. S. Behera, S. Dinda, R. Saha, B. Mondal ACS Catal . 2022 , 13, 469-474
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