EForFuel

Basics

• A Project funded by the EU Related to Power-to-X technology, in particular, Power-to-Fuels
• Usually Stylized as eForFuel
• It uses Electrochemical production of Formic Acid / Formate using Water and CO2
• This can be used as is in a Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cell or in non-fuel uses (ie Power-to-Chemicals )
• This project however demonstrated a further step, metabolic conversion to Propane and Isobutene (Which was intended for production of the Iso-octane )
  • Isooctane is currently used as an Anti-Knock Agent / Octane Rating Booster due to Crude Oil Refinery processes not lending themselves to production of pure chemicals, outside of the Fischer-Troph Reaction or use of crude substitutes such as Pyrolysis Oil or Bio-Crude P2X is often the opposite.
• Thus this study is not only an interesting example of P2X tech, but also a somewhat novel Alternative Fuel Economy
• The Propane and Isobutene are both gases, which lends itself well to bioreactors as the gas will vent off; the microbes do not need to grow in gasoline.

Overview

• It seems to be divided up into "Work Packages" ie all the different steps were developed independently
• Quote:
  • "The work flow of the eForFuel project is carefully planned and organized in order to accomplish the project goals efficiently and effectively, and to meet the needs of all stakeholders. There are 8 work packages in total, with 14 partners working complementarily on them."
• Will be abbreviated as "WP" onwards from here

WP-1

• Link to the Page on WP-1
• WP1 Efficient electrochemical CO2 reduction to formic acid
• Quote:
  • " In terms of energy conservation, simplicity and stability, activating CO2 is more efficient using chemical methods (rather than biochemical methods). We will develop an electrolyser, in which CO2 is reduced to formic acid and water is oxidised to oxygen. Our first priority will be to reduce CO2 under acidic conditions, so that the final product, the formic acid, remains stable, or as we say "undissociated"."

WP-2

• Link to the Page on WP-2
• Growth of E. coli on formate
• Quote:
  • "WP2 aims to establish E. coli strains growing on fomate via two synthetic pathways. In WP1 we talked a lot about formic acid, which is stable or chemically "undissociated" under acidic conditions."

WP-3

• Link to the Page on WP-3
• Production of propane and isobutene in E. coli
• Quote:
  • "WP3 will introduce and optimize synthetic pathways in our formate-dependent E. coli strains (WP2), in order to produce our two target fuels: Propane, which is increasingly used as a vehicle fuel, and isobutene, which can be converted into isooctane, a superb fuel substitute."

WP-4

• Link to the Page on WP-4
• WP4 An integrated electrobioreactor
• Quote:
  • "the aim of WP4 is to design and develop an integrated electrobioreactor, in which the processes developed before can occur in one location and at scale."

WP-5

• Link to the Page on WP-5
• Sustainability Assessment
• LCA / Well-to-Wheels type stuff

WP-6

• Link to the Page on WP-6
• Quote:
  • "WP6 will distribute a survey during these events and use it as a base for an analysis of public perception. At the same time this work package will also initiate contact with stakeholders and facilitate a dialogue between them and the consortium. The second part of WP6 is public communication, a task which includes providing information about eForFuel’s work in a variety of ways and media, including on- and offline, in film, text, and graphically."

WP-7

• Link to the Page on WP-7
• Quote:
  • "This work package focuses on the preparation of business plans as well as the details of intellectual property rights and material transfer agreements. Another focus here is also a regular assessment of eForFuel’s technology readiness level throughout the lifespan of the project: this is a measure, which will help monitor innovation risks and also facilitate pushing the project towards a higher technology readiness level."
    • If it isn't Open Access i'm going to have a real bad time

WP-8

• Link to the Page on WP-8
• Quote:
  • "WP8 deals with management. This includes such tasks as the day-to-day management and coordination of the project, as well as the financial and legal management of the consortium. But WP8 also includes quality and risk management, as well as innovation management, which will provide an ongoing discussion on the ways in which eForFuel as a research consortium concerns itself with responsibility, ethics and access."

Takeaways from an OSE-Perspective

P2X Via Biochemical Conversion

• This showcases a TRL4 / TRL5 process for P2F using Electricity and Bioreactors!
• This is MAJOR.

P2X Production of Formic Acid

• While it can be used as a fuel in a DFAFC, it can also be used as:
  • A Miticide in Beekeeping (RE: Formic Acid Vaporizer etc)
  • A Preservative
  • In Flux for Soldering
• Overall it is a useful chemical, and to have it be produced in a lab scale device (which on it's own may not mean much to a factory owner, but to OSE's Distributed Lens that may be all that is needed / multiple units could be run like how Powercubes are used

Lab Protocols + Overall Project Management

• Looking into their Electrobioreactor design would be of use for designing one for ose use, their genetic modification as well potentially
• The concept of Work Packages is interesting, and may be of use in some more complex OSE projects (already done to an extent, but that and the aerospace concept of Incremental Validation (i think that was the term, essentially what stratolaunch was doing with flying putting landing gear up/down landing etc, double check the term)

Internal Links

• Autogas (The term used when Propane / LPG is used as an Automotive Fuel)
• Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells
  • Interesting option
  • Some papers such as [this one] mention it's application in Micropower
  • As per This 2017 Open Access Paper Titled "Efficient Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells (DFAFCs) Anode Derived from Seafood waste: Migration Mechanism" , conventional designs tend to have issues with Catalyst Poisoning (Although their Chitosan Matrix for the Platinum and Palladium Catalysts reduced this heavily
    • Getting information on the overall TRL and if there are any designs with Non-Precious Metal Catalysts would be worth looking up
    • Also purity of Formic Acid required, and the overall SDS for Formic Acid

External Links

• The Main Website
  • User: Eric here, for whatever reason my browser is giving this error anytime i try and open the page:
    • "This site can’t provide a secure connectionwww.eforfuel.eu uses an unsupported protocol. ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH"
    • HOWEVER The Wayback Machine's copies work fine, so those are what i have been reading
    • If you have the same issues just use the website or chrome extension for the wayback machine and you should be good to go
• A Codis Europa Post Titled "Fuels from electricity: de novo metabolic conversion of electrochemically produced formate into hydrocarbons - Breakthrough biotechnology enables engineered bacteria to churn out sustainable biofuels - EU-funded researchers altered the genetic make-up of Escherichia coli to produce biofuel using three renewable and naturally abundant source ingredients: water, CO2 and solar/wind-generated electricity.
• A VoltaChem Website Post Titled "Driving on CO2: VoltaChem scales up sustainable production of formic acid"
  • From the company itself, so ye be warned and whatnot
  • Also this may be a separate effort to the study, but same concept, either way further digging required
• Videos:
  • Titled "eForFuel: Fuel from Electricity and CO2" ( ~2 Minute Watch )
  • Titled "eforfuel #1: Background, results, outlook" ( ~2 Minute Watch )
  • Titled "eforfuel #2: CO2 Electrolyser" ( ~2 Minute Watch )
  • Titled "eforfuel #3: Integrating the CO2 electrolyser with the automated evolution platform" ( 2 Minute Watch )