TY - JOUR
T1 - Sustainable Electrochemical Production of Tartaric Acid
AU - Garcia, Amanda C.
AU - Sánchez-Martínez, Carlos
AU - Bakker, Ivan
AU - Goetheer, Earl
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Herein, we describe a study of the electrochemical reduction of oxalic and glyoxylic acids toward a feasible green and sustainable production of tartaric acid in aqueous and/or acetonitrile solvent using silver and lead electrodes. Our results show that on the silver electrode, for both oxalic acid and glyoxylic acid, the reduction reaction is more favorable toward the dimerization step, leading to tartaric acid, due to the increase in the local pH, while on the lead electrode, the step involving the protonation of the intermediate is more favorable, leading to the formation of glycolate. Techno-economic analysis shows that tartaric acid production from glyoxylic acid and from oxalic acid via electrochemical synthesis can be a potential process at the industrial scale. In the present case, the oxygen evolution reaction was chosen as the reaction at the other electrode for practical reasons, but oxygen is a low-value product. Another anodic reaction with a more valuable oxidation product can be selected to increase the profitability of the overall electrochemical process and thereby decrease the total production costs of tartaric acid.
AB - Herein, we describe a study of the electrochemical reduction of oxalic and glyoxylic acids toward a feasible green and sustainable production of tartaric acid in aqueous and/or acetonitrile solvent using silver and lead electrodes. Our results show that on the silver electrode, for both oxalic acid and glyoxylic acid, the reduction reaction is more favorable toward the dimerization step, leading to tartaric acid, due to the increase in the local pH, while on the lead electrode, the step involving the protonation of the intermediate is more favorable, leading to the formation of glycolate. Techno-economic analysis shows that tartaric acid production from glyoxylic acid and from oxalic acid via electrochemical synthesis can be a potential process at the industrial scale. In the present case, the oxygen evolution reaction was chosen as the reaction at the other electrode for practical reasons, but oxygen is a low-value product. Another anodic reaction with a more valuable oxidation product can be selected to increase the profitability of the overall electrochemical process and thereby decrease the total production costs of tartaric acid.
KW - electro-dimerization reaction
KW - electro-organic synthesis
KW - green sysnthesis
KW - sustainable chemistry
KW - tartaric acid production
KW - techno-economic analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089286529&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c02493
DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c02493
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089286529
SN - 2168-0485
VL - 8
SP - 10454
EP - 10460
JO - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
JF - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
IS - 28
ER -