There are potential competitive advantages for electrochemical processes versus thermal processes. First, the main driving force for electrochemical reactions is electrochemical potential (i.e., electrical voltage) rather than temperature, giving electrochemical unit operations the ability to operate at very low temperatures (< 100 o C), where they can avoid high thermal losses and materials stability issues like catalyst sintering. Operating at low temperature gives electrochemical reactors an extra advantage over exothermic thermocatalytic processes such as ammonia or methanol synthesis, for which conversion is typically limited by chemical equilibrium constraints encountered at the elevated temperatures required to drive reaction kinetics at appreciable rates. By being able to operate at lower temperature where equilibrium conversion for many exothermic reactions is very high, electrochemical processes present opportunities to reduce costs associated with downstream separation units compared to their thermocatalytic counterparts. Third, by using a membrane or diaphragm divider to separate the anode and cathode, electrochemical reactors simultaneously carry out conversion and separation of oxidation and reduction products, reducing the need for downstream separation processes. Fourth, the potential operational flexibility to dynamically change output as electricity prices change and modularity of electrochemical systems could make it possible to design flexible and grid-interactive chemical plants. Finally, the ability to scale down provides opportunities to realize smaller-scale chemical plants with lower financial risk and easier integration into distributed power grids to minimize electric power transmission losses and transportation needs for reactants and products.