Investigation of Redox Carriers for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Capture and Concentration

Abstract

The increase of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere has strengthened the need to separate and sequester this greenhouse gas from industrial emissions as well as the atmosphere. Current state-of-the-art thermal technologies for CO2 capture and concentration are extremely inefficient. In contrast, electrochemical methods for carbon dioxide capture and concentration using redox carriers have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 100%. Practical application of redox carriers for electrochemical CO2 capture requires that the chosen redox carrier possess the following attributes: air-stability (through avoidance of the dioxygen reduction) and capture from flue gas (10-15%) CO2 concentration. To achieve this goal, we worked with computational collaborators to study effects that might encourage higher binding constants at more positive reduction potentials. Several molecules were investigated and reported.