IUCRC Planning Grant University of Colorado Boulder: Center for Decarbonizing Chemical Manufacturing Using Sustainable Electrification (DC-MUSE)

Electrifying and decarbonizing chemical manufacturing could improve global environmental health and support the economic security and prosperity of the US chemical industry. This industry currently impacts 25% (~$5T) of the US GDP and 4.4 million American jobs while producing 14% of all the world’s chemicals used in 96% of all manufactured goods (lifesaving drugs, personal care products, agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, textiles, etc.). Global trends and social pressures to curb climate change are a looming threat to the US chemical industry because current US manufacturing practices are not compliant with international CO2 emission policies and impending carbon taxing, trading, pricing, and penalties. For example, Europe requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 95% of 1990 levels by 2050, and China has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2060. Such policies place 12% of all US exports (~$220B) in jeopardy if the US chemical industry is not timely decarbonized, underpinning the importance of the proposed IUCRC. Diversification into renewable electricity sources is critical to ensure US leadership in climate change action in future chemical manufacturing. The proposed Center for Decarbonizing Chemical Manufacturing Using Sustainable Electrification (DC-MUSE) could enable this industry transformation by providing foundational cross-industry tools for the deployment of electrochemical and plasma processes powered either by on-site clean energy resources (e.g., renewables or hydrogen) and/or by electricity supply from the decarbonized power grid, and a trained workforce to implement them. This planning grant supports investigation of a new IUCRC (DC-MUSE) comprised of two sites - New York University (NYU) as the lead site and University of Colorado at Boulder (CUBoulder) as a partner site - that have complementary research strengths. CUBoulder brings unique capabilities in the use of cutting-edge tools for electrochemical systems modeling, which is crucial for process/plant design and grid integration. The sites will work collaboratively to develop technology foundations for scalable electrified chemical manufacturing systems that can enable new chemical transformations and help to decarbonize the chemical industry. Through this research, new knowledge and technologies will fill critical scientific and industrial gaps in (1)the pharmaceuticals and specialty chemicals sectors, whose primary need is the development of stable and flexible electrochemical reactors that can be leveraged to produce high-value chemical compounds commonly produced on medium-to-low scales and (2) the chemical commodities sector whose primary need is the development of scalable reactor concepts and prototypes to produce large-scale petrochemical products (e.g., light olefins and their derivatives) and their integration with on-site power systems and the electricity grid. Based on these goals, DC-MUSE has proposed an initial portfolio of pre-competitive projects to support these industry needs: Thrust 1. (NYU-Lead) Electrocatalytic Materials; Thrust 2. (NYU-Lead) Electrochemical Reactor Design and Reaction Optimization; Thrust 3. (CUBoulder-Lead) Electrochemical Systems Modeling and Grid Integration. This grant will support customer discovery and planning activities, including an industry workshop, that will enable further refinement of the overall DC-MUSE research agenda as well as the specific initial set of projects for a potential Phase I IUCRC. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.