Design and Fabrication of Electrolyzers for the Production of Green H2 & O2 and Reduction of CO2 to Value-Added Chemicals

Abstract

The electrochemical cells generate electrical energy from chemical reactions (i.e., Galvanic cells) or use electricity to conduct chemical reactions and produce chemicals (i.e., Electrolytic cells).1,2 Electrolyzers are the electrolytic cells, where water (H2O) electrolyzes to produce Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2), and CO2 electrolyzes to produce various chemicals (such as CO, HCOOH, CH3OH, C2H5OH, etc.), depending upon the selectivity and efficiency of the electrocatalysts.3–5 Though various electrocatalysts for electrolyzers are developed but without well-designed, portable, and cost-effective electrolyzers, the overall commercialization is still limited. Herein, we are working to design new types of electrolytic cells to solve electrochemical problems and improve the overall performance of cells on a laboratory-to-industry scale.6,7 We have designed a three-electrodes system cell where we can study electrochemical properties by variation in temperature of selectively working electrodes only (i.e., electrode materials), keeping all other systems at a constant temperature. In the second problem, we solved the ion migration issue from one compartment to another by minimizing the conventional H-cell's bar length (l).8,9 We are developing stack electrolyzers that can be used as both H2O and CO2 electrolysis (Fig.1a-c). Figure 1