While common effort is rising to fight climate change and many available technologies are already deployed to considerably reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, many chemicals are still manufactured with heavy usage of fossil fuels serving as feedstocks, energy sources, and for transportation.

One such chemical is potassium formate (HCOOK), a compound produced for its use as a green non-corrosive de-icing agent and drilling fluid.

This chemical is synthesized mainly in the Middle East and Asia  through the reaction of carbon monoxide (CO) and methanol (MeOH), both sourced from fossil fuels, at high pressures and moderate temperatures (4500 kPa and 80°C), to produce formic acid (HCOOH).

HCOOH reacts spontaneously with potassium hydroxide (KOH) to yield HCOOK. The overall carbon footprint of HCOOK production alone is estimated to be around 2.67 CO2 ton per ton of HCOOK (ton CO2eHCOOK) when we consider only the production of formic acid from fossil sources (1.41 ton CO2eHCOOK) and the production of KOH (1.26 ton CO2eHCOOK).