We present our early stage techno-economic analyses on electrochemical upgrading of sequestered carbon dioxide into higher-value chemicals. The technology seeks harness intermittent, renewable electricity to drive electrochemical processes that convert CO2 into fuels. Through our techno-economic study, we explore the cost functions and value propositions of this energy-storage technology.With the deployment of intermittent renewable energy resources into the utilities sector, research into fast and efficient forms of energy storage has become critical to address the temporal variation associated with these renewable resources. Our efforts seek to convert this renewable-but-intermittent electricity into chemical energy that is more-easily stored. This power-to-chemicals conversion utilizes water vapor and carbon dioxide feedstocks to form methane and higher-value chemicals. The approach has the potential to decrease CO2 emissions while providing storage for intermittent renewables.The renewable electricity is used to drive solid-oxide electrolysis cells that feature novel proton-conducting ceramics. As shown in the figure, the protonic-ceramic electrolyzers split the water-vapor feedstock at the steam electrode into protons and molecular oxygen. The protons (H+) are transported across the dense protonic-ceramic membrane to the fuel electrode, while the molecular oxygen simply exhausts from the electrolyzer. At the fuel electrode, the protons serve to hydrogenate the CO2 into higher-value chemicals, such as methane. If successful, such a device could be harnessed to convert renewable electricity into a drop-in fuel for our nation’s natural gas infrastructure.We are developing a techno-economic analysis (TEA) of an protonic-ceramic electrolysis cells (PCECs) to determine the value proposition of CO2-to-methane synthesis,. Our TEA draws from previously established models of more-common solid-oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs). To date, our TEA was built around a single-cell PCEC model in MATLAB that was later migrated to Aspen HYSYS for integration with larger thermofluid systems. The preliminary MATLAB model utilized a straightforward current-density-dependent voltage model for the SOEC, similar to the equation commonly used to model SOFCs. The TEA looked specifically at the cost associated with production of methane from a PCEC sized to consume three tons of coal feedstock CO2 equivalent per day.Projected costs vary with the assumed performance point: peak flow efficiency, peak stoichiometric efficiency, or peak methane production rate. Continued iterations of this model will lend more insight into how these cost projections change with scale, and provide insight on cost drivers. Figure 1