Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FIREFLY (FlexIble, predictive and Renewable Electricity powered electrochemical toolbox For a sustainable transition of the catalyst-based European chemicaL industrY)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-06-30
The EU-27 chemical industry is the second largest in the world, generating sales for EUR 499 billion, which have increased by 38% since 2000. Most chemical industries rely on the use of catalysts (~90% of all chemical processes) and 60% of all industrial products are made using catalysis. Europe has a large share of the global catalyst manufacturing (~25%). Europe is also a significant user of catalysts (world's largest consumer of platinum group metals, PGMs). Many catalysts rely on critical metals, endangering the sovereignty and competitiveness of Europe. There is an urgent need to address strategic foregign depentencies, which include critical and particularly vulnerable metals like Mo and W. On top of this, the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine increased the high vulnerability of critical metals such as the PGMs and Ni. Metal recovery for catalyst recycling and the integrated green production of (electro)catalysts are essential for the cost-competitive and sustainable development of all electrifiable chemical value chains. The FIREFLY project sees the recycling of critical metals contained in spent, off specifications and waste catalysts, as an exceptional opportunity to address these issues.
The FIREFLY project aims to electrify a large part of the chemicals value chain in a sustainable way (environmental, economic, social): power-to-chemicals fostered via electrochemical catalyst recycling. The specific objectives (SO) to meet this aim are:
SO1. To research, develop, and optimize innovative and sustainable electrified/electrochemical technologies (TRL4) for recycling metal-based catalysts and the downstream (electro)chemical synthesis of strategic (electro)catalysts.
SO2. To research, develop, and optimize the powering of these electrified/electrochemical technologies by Renewable Energy Sources (RES) considering performance, environmental friendliness, and cost-efficiency in this electrification scenario.
SO3. To research, develop, and optimize a digital tool (based on machine learning and artificial intelligence) for prescriptive and predictive decision-making of the optimized metal recycling and catalyst synthesis processes.
SO4. To develop the modelling- and simulation-based engineering framework to support the understanding, innovation, and optimization of the design, operation, validation, and demonstration of the FIREFLY process.
SO5. To demonstrate (TRL6) the electrified FIREFLY process for the recycling of metal-based catalysts, simultaneous production of (electro)catalysts, and validation of the latter in selected (electro)chemical applications.
SO6. To assess the integrated sustainability of the FIREFLY concept and benchmark it versus the State of the Art (SoA) recycling and production of catalysts and selected chemical manufacturing applications.
The FIREFLY process will be the solution to overcome key challenges associated to the recycling of critical metals from spent, off specifications and waste catalysts and will positively influence a wide range of stakeholders in the catalyst value chain.
The FIREFLY project aims to electrify a large part of the chemicals value chain in a sustainable way (environmental, economic, social): power-to-chemicals fostered via electrochemical catalyst recycling. The specific objectives (SO) to meet this aim are:
SO1. To research, develop, and optimize innovative and sustainable electrified/electrochemical technologies (TRL4) for recycling metal-based catalysts and the downstream (electro)chemical synthesis of strategic (electro)catalysts.
SO2. To research, develop, and optimize the powering of these electrified/electrochemical technologies by Renewable Energy Sources (RES) considering performance, environmental friendliness, and cost-efficiency in this electrification scenario.
SO3. To research, develop, and optimize a digital tool (based on machine learning and artificial intelligence) for prescriptive and predictive decision-making of the optimized metal recycling and catalyst synthesis processes.
SO4. To develop the modelling- and simulation-based engineering framework to support the understanding, innovation, and optimization of the design, operation, validation, and demonstration of the FIREFLY process.
SO5. To demonstrate (TRL6) the electrified FIREFLY process for the recycling of metal-based catalysts, simultaneous production of (electro)catalysts, and validation of the latter in selected (electro)chemical applications.
SO6. To assess the integrated sustainability of the FIREFLY concept and benchmark it versus the State of the Art (SoA) recycling and production of catalysts and selected chemical manufacturing applications.
The FIREFLY process will be the solution to overcome key challenges associated to the recycling of critical metals from spent, off specifications and waste catalysts and will positively influence a wide range of stakeholders in the catalyst value chain.
Stage 1 of the activities performed in FIREFLY focused on research, development and optimization (to TRL-4) of flexible technologies in the electrochemical toolbox and catalyst synthesis.
Experimental and modelling activities have been carried, regarding 8 electrified technologies: MCP: Mechanochemical processing, ELX: Electroleaching, ESLX: Electro-driven solvoleaching, ESX: Electro-driven solvent extraction, ERMS: Electrochemical recovery from molten salts, ETMS: Electrochemical transformation in molten salts, ETOS: Electrochemical transformation in organic solvents, GDEx: Gas-diffusion electro-crystallization. Successful recovieries in line with the project's KPIs have been obtained. ETMS, GDEx, and ELX have been successfully modeled via a multi-physics approach.
A model has been developed for ELX and GDEx technologies to compare theoretical and experimental potential values, associated to renewable electricity powering. A vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is investigated, which can be used as an energy storage system. The integration of RES in the selected flowsheets of the electrochemical toolbox is being investigated by multi-energy system analysis, analysis of potential for providing ancillary services and designing of electric power supply system.
The first design of the user interface (UI) prototype of the AI/ML based digital tool was developed and a preliminary validation with the partners has been performed. This tool will support users in decision-making of the enhanced metal recycling and catalyst synthesis processes.
Preliminary lab-scale testing of a selection of (electro)catalysts synthesized from the recovered metals have being performed for different demo cases (ammonia synthesis by nitrogen reduction, electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide, lignin depolymerization, and biomass processing).
The integrated sustainability of the FIREFLY processes is being evaluated by: 1) assessing and suggesting valorising processing routes for the residual matrices from FIREFLY process, and 2) performing preliminary Integrated Life Cycle Assessment (ILCSA) to select the technology flowsheets and mapping the technological components, finance, resources, partnering requirements, etc.
Experimental and modelling activities have been carried, regarding 8 electrified technologies: MCP: Mechanochemical processing, ELX: Electroleaching, ESLX: Electro-driven solvoleaching, ESX: Electro-driven solvent extraction, ERMS: Electrochemical recovery from molten salts, ETMS: Electrochemical transformation in molten salts, ETOS: Electrochemical transformation in organic solvents, GDEx: Gas-diffusion electro-crystallization. Successful recovieries in line with the project's KPIs have been obtained. ETMS, GDEx, and ELX have been successfully modeled via a multi-physics approach.
A model has been developed for ELX and GDEx technologies to compare theoretical and experimental potential values, associated to renewable electricity powering. A vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is investigated, which can be used as an energy storage system. The integration of RES in the selected flowsheets of the electrochemical toolbox is being investigated by multi-energy system analysis, analysis of potential for providing ancillary services and designing of electric power supply system.
The first design of the user interface (UI) prototype of the AI/ML based digital tool was developed and a preliminary validation with the partners has been performed. This tool will support users in decision-making of the enhanced metal recycling and catalyst synthesis processes.
Preliminary lab-scale testing of a selection of (electro)catalysts synthesized from the recovered metals have being performed for different demo cases (ammonia synthesis by nitrogen reduction, electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide, lignin depolymerization, and biomass processing).
The integrated sustainability of the FIREFLY processes is being evaluated by: 1) assessing and suggesting valorising processing routes for the residual matrices from FIREFLY process, and 2) performing preliminary Integrated Life Cycle Assessment (ILCSA) to select the technology flowsheets and mapping the technological components, finance, resources, partnering requirements, etc.
The main achievements obtained beyond the state of the art are: Mechanochemical Processing (MCP) achieved a leaching yield of 91% for zirconium, Gas-Diffusion Electrocrystallization (GDEx) recorded almost 100% recovery of platinum group metals from aqueous and organic media, and electro-driven solvoleaching leached 85% of Pd from the spent catalyst. These results will contribute to replace: (i) chemical additions by electric input, (ii) strong acids/chemicals by milder and highly recyclable solvents, (iii) materials from primary resources by recycled materials, (iv) high temperature by milder operating conditions (i.e. incl. replacement of fossil-fuel-based thermal energy by renewable electricity), and even room temperature processing (i.e. ELX, ESLX, ESX, GDEx), (v) multiple processing steps by fewer operations (including upstream pretreatment and downstream separation and purification), and (vi) various chemical/thermal flowsheets by greener fully-electrochemical flowsheets for metal recovery and (electro)catalyst synthesis.