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A recirculation system for concentrating CO2 electrolyzer products

Journal Article · · Sustainable Energy & Fuels
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/d3se01506h· OSTI ID:2472824
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
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Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction represents a promising path to utilize CO2 as a feedstock for generating valuable products such as fuels and chemicals. Faradaic efficiencies near 100% have been achieved for certain CO2 reduction products such as CO, but the electrolyzer outlet streams usually contain large fractions of unreacted CO2, dropping the product concentrations below 1% in many cases. The system disclosed here recycles the unreacted CO2 together with the products and flows them back into the CO2 reduction reactor, enabling much higher CO2 conversion rates without dropping the gas flow rate. However, simple recirculation is shown to accumulate significant amounts of hydrogen, impeding effective CO2 reduction. In this looped system, an electrochemical H2 pump is placed in series with the CO2 reactor, which effectively removes all the H2 from the recycled gas stream, increasing the concentrations of carbon-containing products. Here, the system was initially tested with a CO-generating catalyst and CO concentrations above 70% were achieved in the recycled gas stream, compared to a maximum CO concentration of 8% in single-pass configuration. Results with a CO2 reactor targeting ethylene as the main product show that ethylene concentrations of at least 10% can be achieved, which is roughly 20 times higher compared to a single-pass system.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; SC0021266
OSTI ID:
2472824
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2341334
Journal Information:
Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Journal Name: Sustainable Energy & Fuels Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 8; ISSN 2398-4902
Publisher:
Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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