RenewCO2 is delighted to announce the award of a small business technology transfer program (STTR) Phase I research grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will fund the development of novel electrolyzers for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) with the co-production of chlorine.
RenewCO2 will further advance the proprietary technology developed at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey to produce MEG, by combining it with the co-production of chlorine, a major commodity chemical. MEG is currently used as one of the two primary constituents of poly-ethylene terephthalate (PET); PET finds use in everything from food containers to textiles with a current market estimated at $30.4 million in 2018. Chlorine is used in plastic production mainly producing PVC (vinyl) plastics, as well as in the water treatment and bleach industries, with a global market of $33.4 million in 2019. This technology will offer a carbon negative alternative to petrochemically derived MEG, where CO2 will be extracted from emission sources and recycled into commodity chemicals and new products. This project pro-actively deals with the increasing atmospheric CO2 content threatening our way of life.
RenewCO2 is a recent startup coming from the Dismukes research group in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology as well as an alumni of I-Corps@Rutgers, the regional NSF I-Corps entrepreneurial program based at Rutgers.
Read more about RenewCO2 here: www.renewco2.com/news
