Wedoany.com Report-Jun 10, OCOchem has officially announced the successful start-up and commissioning of the world’s first pilot plant capable of producing hydrogen formate and potassium formate at an industrial scale using only carbon dioxide and water. The $5 million facility is designed to produce 60 tons of formate annually, marking a significant milestone in carbon utilization through CO₂ electrolysis.

The pilot plant employs a 4-cell stack featuring the largest known CO₂ electrolyzer cells, each with a gas diffusion electrode surface area of 1.5 square meters. Operating at ambient temperature and pressure, the system produces formate with a high level of energy and cost efficiency. This innovation introduces a new method of producing formate without relying on biomass or fossil fuels.

Formate is a liquid organic molecule widely used across various industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, cleaning products, and metal processing. It also serves as an effective liquid carrier for hydrogen and carbon monoxide (syngas), contributing to cleaner energy technologies.

Todd Brix, CEO of OCOchem, stated: “For the last three centuries, humanity’s options to harvest useful carbon molecules have been limited to two: either grow it in the form of vegetation taking months or mine it from the earth in the form of hydrocarbons which takes millennia. We now have a 3rd way, CO₂ Electrolysis, to directly and instantly synthesize organic molecules from CO₂ and water. This artificial photosynthesis approach – using industrial-scale components – substantially reduces technology risk. And it allows us to accelerate our scale-out commercialization efforts at larger plant with thousands of cells.”

He added: “In the world we see moving forward, the new platform molecules, the precursor molecules from which all other organic molecules are made, will increasingly start and be made from the molecules that can be made from CO₂ at a lower cost than the incumbent fossil fuel-derived feedstocks. That means a C1 molecule, and that means a 2-electron molecule. Of all the carbon molecules that can be made from CO₂, only hydrogen formate (also known as formic acid) can meet this standard with today’s energy cost.”

The project represents a potential shift in chemical manufacturing by offering a scalable and sustainable approach to formate production, utilizing carbon dioxide as a direct input. OCOchem plans to expand this technology for broader commercial applications in the future.