Electroreduction of CO₂/CO to C₂Products: Process Modeling, Downstream Separation, System Integration, and Economic Analysis

Direct electrochemical reduction of CO2 to C2 products such as ethylene is more efficient in alkaline media, but it suffers from parasitic loss of reactants due to (bi)carbonate formation. A two-step process where the CO2 is first electrochemically reduced to CO and subsequently converted to desired C2 products has the potential to overcome...

Direct Water Injection in Catholyte-Free Zero-Gap Carbon Dioxide Electrolyzers

A zero-gap flow electrolyzer with a tin-coated gas diffusion electrode as the cathode was used to convert humidified gaseous CO₂ to formate. The influence of humidification, flow pattern and the type of membrane on the faradaic efficiency (FE), product concentration, and salt precipitation were investigated. We demonstrated that...

High-pressure electrochemical reduction of CO₂ to formic acid/formate: Effect of pH on the downstream separation process and economics

We use a high-pressure semicontinuous batch electrochemical reactor with a tin-based cathode to demonstrate that it is possible to efficiently convert CO₂ to formic acid (FA) in low-pH (i.e., pH < pK_a) electrolyte solutions. The effects of CO₂ pressure (up to 50 bar), bipolar membranes, and electrolyte (K...