Evonik and Siemens combine CO₂ electrolysis and fermentation for specialty chemicals

January 09, 2019 | Case Study

Specialty organic chemicals are still mostly derived from fossil resources. One of the advantage of CO₂ electrolysis is the ability for the chemical industry to decouple itself from the oil and gas sector by switching to alternative feedstocks. In January 2018, Siemens and Evonik partnered to form the Rheticus project. The goal of the project is to produce butanol and hexanol from CO₂ and renewable electricity. The butanol and hexanol will then be used as intermediates for plastic or food additives production.