E2C Project - Electrons to High-Value Chemical Products

Around Europe, there is a strong and urgent need to manage the increasingly variable electricity supplies coming from the drastic growth of offshore renewable energy. Meanwhile, the heavy industry is under pressure to reduce CO2 emissions and to make processes more sustainable as a result of the new climate targets. The combination of these two challenges and the availability of a high-tech knowledge-intensive technology supplier industry will offer the unique opportunity for this European region to become a world leader in one of the important solutions: conversion of CO2 into useful products using renewable energy. This cross-border project aims to accelerate the establishment of that unique position by filling in an important gap in the development of such processes for the industry, namely the screening and piloting steps between lab scale proof-of-principle and commercial demonstration. The E2C consortium consists of 7 core partners and 35 industrial observer partners from the Netherlands, Belgium, France and the UK. Within the core partnership, applied institutes TNO (including ECN part of TNO) and VITO will focus on the development of the electrochemical technologies towards pilot installations in industry, while the academic partners TU Delft, University of Antwerp, University of Exeter and University of Lille will work on detailed research and development improving the limitations of the technologies. The University of Sheffield will be focused on communication, dissemination, and impact through its CO2Chem network together with TNO and the VoltaChem Shared Innovation Program. Furthermore, 35 companies from the equipment, energy & chemical sectors are closely involved in the project as Observer Partners, providing technical or market input and advising on the development of the project towards the pilot installations.