(382bb) E-Coduct: An Electrified Fluidized Bed Reactor for a Sustainable Methanol Synthesis from COS

Research Interests: The increasing emphasis on transforming greenhouse gases and industrial waste streams into valuable products has spurred the development of various innovative technologies. Conventional acid gas treatment methods, like the Claus process, mainly recover elemental sulfur, whereas CO₂ reduction technologies depend on high-purity feedstocks for its efficient upgrading. Existing technologies offer no solution for the simultaneous reduction of H₂S and CO₂, while maintaining economic and environmental efficiencies.

The Horizon Europe project e-CODUCT (https://e-coduct.eu/) aims to address the urgent environmental challenge of simultaneously reducing acid gases through an innovative two-step process. In the first step, CO₂ and H₂S are converted into COS using a fixed-bed reactor with zeolite catalysts. In the second step, an electrothermal fluidized-bed reactor facilitates the transformation of COS into CO and Sx.

The e-CODUCT approach enables the production of carbon monoxide (CO) as a key platform molecule for valuable chemicals and low-carbon fuels, such as methanol, while also generating market-ready Claus-grade sulfur. By addressing the limitations of existing methods, the project offers a sustainable and economically viable industrial solution. To validate its technology and the experimental results obtained on a lab-scale, a pilot plant was designed at TRL 6 to demonstrate COS decomposition in an electrified fluidized-bed reactor at temperatures up to 1200°C. The facility supports data collection for microkinetic model validation, techno-economic assessment (TEA), and life-cycle analysis (LCA), further advancing the feasibility of the e-CODUCT process. The pilot reactor is an important milestone for the wide array of European stakeholders, as it contributes to the development of industrial decarbonization technologies and innovations.

Acknowledgments. The e−CODUCT project is funded under Horizon Europe Grant Agreement N°101058100.