PERFORM - Towards the construction of the pilot plant

On January 27th and 28th, the 36-month meeting of the PERFORM project (EU H2020) was held on-line.

PERFORM aims at the development of an integrated platform for the production of value-added chemicals (maleic, valeric, glucaric and adipic acids) by electrochemicals processes from bio-feedstocks.

HYSYTECH's role in the project is the development, scale-up and construction of the PowerPlatform, which is composed of the electrocatalytic reactor, integrated with the required downstream process to produce drop-in products from sustainable feedstocks.

The PowerPlatform will be validated with two different lines, where biomass feedstocks will be converted into chemical building blocks. In the first line, a paired electrosynthesis of furfural to maleic acid and levulinic acid to valeric acid will take place. In the second route, the paired tandem electrosynthesis of glucose to glucaric acid and further to adipic acid will be validated.

The electrochemical reactors were built by HYSYTECH and tested by our project partners TNO and VITO for the two production lines. The gathered informations were used to optimize the design of the final upscaled reactor that will be supplied with the prototype. Furthermore, during the meeting the process engineering for the electrochemical processes was discussed and refined.