Tandem and Hybrid Processes for Carbon Dioxide Utilization

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Joule

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2020.12.004· OSTI ID:1841275

Overa, Sean; Feric, Tony G.; Park, Ah-Hyung Alissa; Jiao, Feng

As fossil fuels continue to dominate the energy portfolio, the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration has exceeded 400 ppm, posing a major threat to our environment. Conventional chemical processes utilize fossil carbon sources to produce chemicals and fuels, which inevitably emit a tremendous amount of the greenhouse gas CO₂. To realize sustainable chemical production and tominimize environmental impacts, CO₂ captured from industrial sources and ambient air can serve as an alternative carbon source. A variety of CO₂ conversion technologies, including thermochemical, biological, and electrochemical approaches, are currently under development. Thermochemical hydrogenation processes are capable of converting CO₂ into single carbon (C₁) products such as methane, methanol, and carbon monoxide. These technologies have high technology readiness levels (TRL) compared to the electrochemical and biological approaches (Figure 1A) but use hydrogen primarily derived from methane through steam reforming, a process that emits CO₂. Biological approaches, such as artificial photosynthesis and algae growth, suffer from high operational costs but are capable of producing long-chain C₂–C₆ products with high selectivity. Electrochemical approaches, such as CO₂ electrolysis, have the unique advantage of being able to operate using solely renewable electricity. With renewable electricity becoming steadily more available and affordable, CO₂ electrolysis can effectively produce C₁ and C₂₊ products directly from CO₂ at rapid and cost-effective rates. Further, recent technoeconomic analyses have found that the CO₂ electrolysis products formic acid, acetic acid, and ethylene are all very close to being economically viable, given the current trajectory of renewable electricity prices. As a result, significant research should be invested in CO₂ electrolysis technologies to improve performance and deploy them for chemical manufacturing.

• Research Organization: Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage (BEES)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0019409; CBET-1803200
• OSTI ID: 1841275
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1865405
• Journal Information: Joule, Journal Name: Joule Vol. 5 Journal Issue: 1; ISSN 2542-4351
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
25 ENERGY STORAGE