Description:

Abstract: The transition to carbon-neutral renewable electricity is well underway in many countries around the world, and as of now, roughly one third of the world’s electricity demand is met by renewable energy sources like hydropower, wind, solar, and biomass. However, to arrive at electricity grids that are 100% renewable, a simultaneous increase in storage capacity is crucial to balance periods of under- and oversupply. Power-to-gas approaches are a promising avenue to achieve this goal, as they enable the conversion of surplus renewable energy into carbon-neutral and storable fuel gases like green hydrogen (H2) and renewable natural gas (i.e., CH4). Hereby, electrochemical methods can serve as a two-fold power-to-gas technology, as they have the potential to combine electrolytic H2 production with CO2 capture from biogas for RNG production. An intriguing, yet underexplored approach is to switch from alkaline to neutral water electrolysis, to utilize the inherent capability of the water splitting reaction to create acid and base streams from a saline electrolyte for pH-mediated carbon capture and release. Besides fuel gas production, so-called power-to-pure approaches present another avenue to advance the energy transition, by employing physicochemical processes like electrochemical separation or ultrasonic methods to remove or destroy persistent environmental contaminants in times of an oversupply of renewable electricity.

Bio: Dr. Lippert is a postdoctoral scholar at Northwestern University and a Fellow of the Northwestern-Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering (NAISE). Before coming to Northwestern, he worked as a postdoc at Technical University of Munich (TUM), developing zero liquid discharge concepts for the chemical industry. Dr. Lippert earned his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering at both TUM and Technical University of Denmark and holds a PhD degree from TUM in the field of sewage sludge pretreatment.