Membraneless laminar flow cell for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction with liquid product separation

Monroe, Morgan M.; Lobaccaro, Peter; Lum, Yanwei; Ager, Joel W.

doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aa6359

Title: Membraneless laminar flow cell for electrocatalytic CO₂ reduction with liquid product separation

Journal Article · Thu Mar 16 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of Physics. D, Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa6359· OSTI ID:1393135

Monroe, Morgan M. ^[1]; Lobaccaro, Peter ^[1]; Lum, Yanwei ^[1]; Ager, Joel W. ^[1]

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)

The production of liquid fuel products via electrochemical reduction of CO₂ is a potential path to produce sustainable fuels. However, to be practical, a separation strategy is required to isolate the fuel-containing electrolyte produced at the cathode from the anode and also prevent the oxidation products (i.e. O₂) from reaching the cathode. Ion-conducting membranes have been applied in CO₂ reduction reactors to achieve this separation, but they represent an efficiency loss and can be permeable to some product species. An alternative membraneless approach is developed here to maintain product separation through the use of a laminar flow cell. Computational modelling shows that near-unity separation efficiencies are possible at current densities achievable now with metal cathodes via optimization of the spacing between the electrodes and the electrolyte flow rate. Laminar flow reactor prototypes were fabricated with a range of channel widths by 3D printing. CO₂ reduction to formic acid on Sn electrodes was used as the liquid product forming reaction, and the separation efficiency for the dissolved product was evaluated with high performance liquid chromatography. Trends in product separation efficiency with channel width and flow rate were in qualitative agreement with the model, but the separation efficiency was lower, with a maximum value of 90% achieved.

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Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1393135

Journal Information:: Journal of Physics. D, Applied Physics, Vol. 50, Issue 15; ISSN 0022-3727

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 14 works

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