Development of Column Flow Electrolysis Technology for Construction of Innovative Oxidation Reaction Processes

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K21106
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 27:Chemical engineering and related fields
• Research Institution: Yokohama National University
• Principal Investigator: Atobe Mahito 横浜国立大学, 大学院工学研究院, 教授 (90291351)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: カラムフロー電解 / 電解酸化 / 電極触媒

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Electrochemical oxidation, which is driven by electricity, does not require toxic reagents using heavy metals, and the reaction proceeds under ambient temperature and pressure conditions, making it a highly promising environmentally friendly process that saves resources and energy. However, because the electrochemical oxidation occurs at a two-dimensional electrode interface, conventional batch-type electrolytic oxidation using beakers, etc., has difficulty in improving the scale yield. To improve this problem, an electrochemical column flow cell was employed as a reaction device in this study. The characteristics such as the large electrode area of the cell and the suitable for continuous synthesis were utilized, and a highly efficient alcohol oxidation process was constructed by modifying the column flow electrolytic cell with Au electrocatalysts.

Free Research Field

有機電気化学、電解合成

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の技術要素であるカラムフロー電解ユニットは移設可能な反応デバイスであり、同時に風力や太陽光などの再生可能エネルギー導入を見越した起動停止の追従性にも優れていることも見込まれるため、オンデマンド、オンサイトでの化学品合成が期待できる。そのため、再生可能エネルギー利用による化学品合成はもとより、本技術の社会実装が進めば、安全性の確保や輸送コストの削減、一極集中型から分散型を実現する社会構築にも貢献することが期待される。