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DOE OSTI · 1875342

Recovering carbon losses in CO 2 electrolysis using a solid electrolyte reactor

Kim, Jung ‘Timothy’·Zhu, Peng·Chen, Feng-Yang·Wu, Zhen-Yu·Cullen, David A.·Wang, Haotian
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Abstract

The practical implementation of electrochemical CO 2 reduction technology is greatly challenged by notable CO 2 crossover to the anode side, where the crossed-over CO 2 is mixed with O 2 , via interfacial carbonate formation in traditional CO 2 electrolysers. Here we report a porous solid electrolyte reactor strategy to efficiently recover these carbon losses. Furthermore, by creating a permeable and ion-conducting sulfonated polymer electrolyte between cathode and anode as a buffer layer, the crossover carbonate can combine with protons generated from the anode to re-form CO 2 gas for reuse without mixing with anodic O 2 . Using a silver nanowire catalyst for CO 2 reduction to CO, we demonstrated up to 90% recovery of the crossover CO 2 in an ultrahigh gas purity form (>99%), while delivering over 90% CO Faradaic efficiency under a 200 mA cm -2 current. A high continuous CO 2 conversion efficiency of over 90% was achieved by recycling the recovered CO 2 to the CO 2 input stream.

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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRYchemical engineeringelectrocatalysisrenewable energy

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Kim, Jung ‘Timothy’, Zhu, Peng, Chen, Feng-Yang, Wu, Zhen-Yu, Cullen, David A., Wang, Haotian. 2022-04-18. Recovering carbon losses in CO 2 electrolysis using a solid electrolyte reactor. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-022-00763-w

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