A Novel Molten Salt System for CO2 Based Oxidative Dehydrogenation with Integrated Carbon Capture

North Carolina State University, along with project partners West Virginia University and Susteon Inc., will develop a comprehensive proof-of-concept scheme for the sustainable and cost-effective production of propionic acid from carbon dioxide (CO2) derived from power plant flue gas and light alkanes derived from domestic shale gas. This objective will be realized via a molten salt mediated oxidative dehydrogenation (MM-ODH) process that performs reactive CO2 capture (from power plant flue gas) and CO2-assisted alkane ODH in a two-step, thermochemical scheme. The resulting carbon monoxide (CO) and light olefin (e.g. ethylene from ethane ODH) are subsequently converted into propionic acid via the industrially proven hydrocarboxylation process. The project will address redox catalyst synthesis, characterization, and optimization as well as long-term testing and scalability investigations. Kinetic parameters of the optimized redox catalysts will also be determined. Reactor and process designs for pilot- and commercial-scale MM-ODH systems will be developed using the kinetic results. Detailed techno-economic and life cycle analyses will also be performed.