Electrothermal synthesis of commodity chemicals

Electrothermal synthesis of commodity chemicals has received notable interest in recent decades as renewable electricity becomes more available and environmental challenges are increasingly recognized. Representative electrothermal approaches, such as Joule heating, microwaves, induction heating and plasma, have rapidly evolved from operating in millimeter-sized micro-reactors toward modular and even industrial-scale systems. Meanwhile, new chemical engineering concepts, such as dynamic and programmable operation for non-equilibrium chemical reactions using nanosecond- to millisecond-long energy pulsing, spatial and temporal heating by electrifying various reactor components (for example, the reactor walls, catalyst bed or reactant in porous media), and field-enhanced reactions and catalysis, have been discovered to improve synthesis outcomes. Despite the rapid progress of this field, there remain many knowledge gaps and technical hurdles. Here we review the critical engineering advances, analyze the unaddressed challenges and discuss the potential directions for the electrothermal synthesis of commodity chemicals toward its broader implementation for future chemical manufacturing.