What Is Needed for Industrial Carbon-Dioxide Electroreduction: From Electrode Development to Process Optimization

Abstract

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 is a promising method for converting a greenhouse gas into value-added products, utilizing renewable energy. Novel catalysts, electrode assemblies, and cell configurations are all necessary to achieve economically appealing performance. In this talk, I am going to present a zero gap electrolyzer cell, which converts gas phase CO2 to products without the need for any liquid catholyte. This is the first report of a CO2 electrolyzer cell, where multiple cells are connected into a stack, thus scaling up the electrolysis process. I will show how proper cell components and operational conditions result in unprecedentedly high partial current densities in zero-gap cells. I will demonstrate the role of each component of the membrane electrode assembly, such as the catalysts, the porous transport layers, the membrane, and the ionomers.In the second part of my talk, I will show that while precipitate formation in the cathode gas diffusion electrode is detrimental for the long-term stability, the presence of alkali metal cations at the cathode improves performance. To overcome this contradiction, I will present different approaches which help to extend the lifetime of the electrolyzer cell. As an outlook, I will present a complex machine learning based approach, through which we aim to find the optimal operating conditions of such CO2 electrolyzer cells.