Bubble dynamics during Kolbe electrolysis of trifluoroacetic acid at Pt electrodes

Electrochemical Synthesis of Tailor-Made Hydrocarbons from Organic Solvent Free Aqueous Fatty Acid Mixtures in a Micro Flow Reactor

The process described in the current paper is an alternative route that allows running the Kolbe electrolysis under economically attractive conditions and thus bringing it closer to an industrial application through novel process conditions, novel reactor technology, and the utilization of low-cost excess renewable electricity. The process allows the conversion of fatty acids into hydrocarbons in aqueous electrolytes without applying organic solvents. Important process parameters such as electrode material costs, surface area, and energy requirements of an electrochemical reactor in MW scale have been calculated. Depending on the fatty acid mixtures chosen, tailor-made product equivalents of jet oil, lamp oil, and diesel fuels can be achieved at high Faraday efficiency and high conversion, yields, and selectivities.

Electrifying Organic Synthesis

The direct synthetic organic use of electricity is currently experiencing a renaissance. More synthetically oriented laboratories working in this area are exploiting both novel and more traditional concepts, paving the way to broader applications of this niche technology. As only electrons serve as reagents, the generation of reagent waste is efficiently avoided. Moreover, stoichiometric reagents can be regenerated and allow a transformation to be conducted in an electrocatalytic fashion. However, the application of electroorganic transformations is more than minimizing the waste footprint, it rather gives rise to inherently safe processes, reduces the number of steps of many syntheses, allows for milder reaction conditions, provides alternative means to access desired structural entities, and creates intellectual property (IP) space. When the electricity originates from renewable resources, this surplus might be directly employed as a terminal oxidizing or reducing agent, providing an ultra-sustainable and therefore highly attractive technique. This Review surveys recent developments in electrochemical synthesis that will influence the future of this area.