Abstract:
Chemical manufacturing is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions because fossil fuels are used as both an energy source and a feedstock. Electrosynthesis presents an opportunity to use renewable electricity to drive chemical manufacturing instead of fossil fuel. Hydrogenation is an ideal candidate for electrification because the primary feedstock (hydrogen) can be sourced from water and renewable electricity. The challenge is that conventional electrochemical hydrogenation reactors have issues with reactant solubility, cell voltage, and separation of anodic reactions from cathodic reactions. In this talk, I present a Pd membrane reactor as an alternative platform for driving hydrogenation reactions using electrochemistry. I showcase how the Pd membrane reactor can enable the sustainable production of chemicals & fuels by investigating the hydrogenation of furfural, a biomass derived compound, and the hydrogenation of toluene for the transport and storage of hydrogen in liquid molecules. Finally, I discuss the gaps in our mechanistic understanding of how this reactor works, and present data that two different H transfer mechanisms from Pd–H to reactants in solution.