skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Efficient electrochemical CO2 conversion powered by renewable energy

Journal Article · · ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [2]
  1. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, (United States)
  2. Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

Here, the catalytic conversion of CO2 into industrially relevant chemicals is one strategy for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Along these lines, electrochemical CO2 conversion technologies are attractive because they can operate with high reaction rates at ambient conditions. However, electrochemical systems require electricity, and CO2 conversion processes must integrate with carbon-free, renewable-energy sources to be viable on larger scales. We utilize Au25 nanoclusters as renewably powered CO2 conversion electrocatalysts with CO2 → CO reaction rates between 400 and 800 L of CO2 per gram of catalytic metal per hour and product selectivities between 80 and 95%. These performance metrics correspond to conversion rates approaching 0.8–1.6 kg of CO2 per gram of catalytic metal per hour. We also present data showing CO2 conversion rates and product selectivity strongly depend on catalyst loading. Optimized systems demonstrate stable operation and reaction turnover numbers (TONs) approaching 6 × 106 mol CO2 molcatalyst–1 during a multiday (36 hours total hours) CO2electrolysis experiment containing multiple start/stop cycles. TONs between 1 × 106 and 4 × 106 molCO2 molcatalyst–1 were obtained when our system was powered by consumer-grade renewable-energy sources. Daytime photovoltaic-powered CO2 conversion was demonstrated for 12 h and we mimicked low-light or nighttime operation for 24 h with a solar-rechargeable battery. This proof-of-principle study provides some of the initial performance data necessary for assessing the scalability and technical viability of electrochemical CO2 conversion technologies. Specifically, we show the following: (1) all electrochemical CO2 conversion systems will produce a net increase in CO2 emissions if they do not integrate with renewable-energy sources, (2) catalyst loading vs activity trends can be used to tune process rates and product distributions, and (3) state-of-the-art renewable-energy technologies are sufficient to power larger-scale, tonne per day CO2 conversion systems.

Research Organization:
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
OSTI ID:
1240139
Report Number(s):
NETL-PUB-1221
Journal Information:
ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Vol. 7, Issue 28; ISSN 1944-8244
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 171 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (53)

Beyond Oil and Gas: The Methanol Economy journal April 2005
A general framework for the assessment of solar fuel technologies journal January 2015
A Step Closer to the Electrochemical Production of Liquid Fuels journal July 2014
High Temperature Electrolysis in Alkaline Cells, Solid Proton Conducting Cells, and Solid Oxide Cells journal October 2014
A review of catalysts for the electroreduction of carbon dioxide to produce low-carbon fuels journal January 2014
Activity Descriptors for CO 2 Electroreduction to Methane on Transition-Metal Catalysts journal January 2012
Electrocatalytic Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Methane and Methanol on Transition Metal Surfaces journal August 2014
Prospects of CO2 Utilization via Direct Heterogeneous Electrochemical Reduction journal December 2010
Recycling of carbon dioxide to methanol and derived products – closing the loop journal January 2014
Electrochemical conversion of CO2 to useful chemicals: current status, remaining challenges, and future opportunities journal May 2013
Catalysis for CO2 conversion: a key technology for rapid introduction of renewable energy in the value chain of chemical industries journal January 2013
Visible light plasmonic heating of Au–ZnO for the catalytic reduction of CO2 journal January 2013
Probing active site chemistry with differently charged Au25q nanoclusters (q = −1, 0, +1) journal January 2014
Experimental and Computational Investigation of Au 25 Clusters and CO 2 : A Unique Interaction and Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity journal June 2012
Chemical Recycling of Carbon Dioxide to Methanol and Dimethyl Ether: From Greenhouse Gas to Renewable, Environmentally Carbon Neutral Fuels and Synthetic Hydrocarbons journal January 2009
Throwing New Light on the Reduction of CO 2 journal February 2015
New insights into the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide on metallic copper surfaces journal January 2012
A review of the aqueous electrochemical reduction of CO2 to hydrocarbons at copper journal August 2006
Understanding Trends in the Electrocatalytic Activity of Metals and Enzymes for CO 2 Reduction to CO journal January 2013
Monodisperse Au Nanoparticles for Selective Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to CO journal October 2013
Active and Selective Conversion of CO 2 to CO on Ultrathin Au Nanowires journal November 2014
Aqueous CO 2 Reduction at Very Low Overpotential on Oxide-Derived Au Nanoparticles journal November 2012
Selective Electrocatalytic Activity of Ligand Stabilized Copper Oxide Nanoparticles journal July 2011
Ionic Liquid-Mediated Selective Conversion of CO2 to CO at Low Overpotentials journal September 2011
Nitrogen-Based Catalysts for the Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 to CO journal November 2012
CO2 Reduction at Low Overpotential on Cu Electrodes Resulting from the Reduction of Thick Cu2O Films journal April 2012
Tin Oxide Dependence of the CO 2 Reduction Efficiency on Tin Electrodes and Enhanced Activity for Tin/Tin Oxide Thin-Film Catalysts journal January 2012
Controlling H + vs CO 2 Reduction Selectivity on Pb Electrodes journal November 2014
Nanostructured Tin Catalysts for Selective Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide to Formate journal January 2014
Polyethylenimine-Enhanced Electrocatalytic Reduction of CO 2 to Formate at Nitrogen-Doped Carbon Nanomaterials journal May 2014
High-Yield Electrochemical Production of Formaldehyde from CO 2 and Seawater journal November 2013
Enhanced Electrochemical Methanation of Carbon Dioxide with a Dispersible Nanoscale Copper Catalyst journal September 2014
Catalytic conversion of CO and CO2 into methanol with a solar cell journal March 1986
Electrocatalytic reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol—VI. Use of a solar cell and comparison with that of carbon monoxide journal August 1987
Photons to formate: Efficient electrochemical solar energy conversion via reduction of carbon dioxide journal September 2014
A solar cell driven electrochemical process for the concurrent reduction of carbon dioxide and degradation of azo dye in dilute KHCO3 electrolyte journal September 2013
Silver Supported on Titania as an Active Catalyst for Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction journal January 2014
Highly Dispersed Catalytic Materials journal August 1972
Digital simulation of the measured electrochemical response of reversible redox couples at microelectrode arrays: consequences arising from closely spaced ultramicroelectrodes journal August 1986
The influence of platinum crystallite size on the electroreduction of oxygen journal April 1989
Voltammetry at Nanoparticle and Microparticle Modified Electrodes:  Theory and Experiment journal November 2007
Mesoscopic mass transport effects in electrocatalytic processes journal January 2009
Transient Voltammetry at Electrodes Modified with a Random Array of Spherical Nanoparticles: Theory journal April 2010
Platinum-Coated Nickel Nanowires as Oxygen-Reducing Electrocatalysts journal March 2014
On the Structure of Thiolate-Protected Au 25 journal March 2008
Correlating the Crystal Structure of A Thiol-Protected Au25 Cluster and Optical Properties
  • Zhu, Manzhou; Aikens, Christine M.; Hollander, Frederick J.
  • Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 130, Issue 18, p. 5883-5885 https://doi.org/10.1021/ja801173r
journal May 2008
Crystal Structure of the Gold Nanoparticle [N(C 8 H 17 ) 4 ][Au 25 (SCH 2 CH 2 Ph) 18 ] journal March 2008
A review of PEM fuel cell durability: Degradation mechanisms and mitigation strategies journal September 2008
Dendritic Assembly of Gold Nanoparticles during Fuel-Forming Electrocatalysis journal May 2014
Exceptional Size-Dependent Activity Enhancement in the Electroreduction of CO 2 over Au Nanoparticles journal November 2014
Development of a continuous reactor for the electro-reduction of carbon dioxide to formate – Part 2: Scale-up journal July 2007
Technical Scale of Electrochemistry book December 2007
Scale-Up of Electrochemical Reactors book October 2012

Cited By (25)

Rethinking Co(CO 3 ) 0.5 (OH)·0.11H 2 O: a new property for highly selective electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to methanol in aqueous solution journal January 2018
Nanostructured Copper-Based Electrocatalysts for CO 2 Reduction journal July 2018
Carbon neutral electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide mediated by [M n+ (cyclam)Cl n ] (M = Ni 2+ and Co 3+ ) on mercury free electrodes and ionic liquids as reaction media journal January 2017
Heterostructured intermetallic CuSn catalysts: high performance towards the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to formate journal January 2019
Electrochemically Fabricated Pd-In Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide-Formate/Formic Acid Inter-Conversion: Pd-In Catalysts for CO 2 -Formate/Formic Acid Inter-Conversion journal May 2017
Sulfur substitution in a Ni(cyclam) derivative results in lower overpotential for CO 2 reduction and enhanced proton reduction journal January 2019
An overview on the recent developments of Ag-based electrodes in the electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to CO journal January 2020
Modeling the effect of surface CO coverage on the electrocatalytic reduction of CO 2 to CO on Pd surfaces journal January 2019
Modeling the Electrochemical Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Formic Acid or Formate at Elevated Pressures journal January 2019
Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Reduction at Nanostructured Gold, Copper, and Alloy Materials journal March 2017
An overview on the current understanding of the photophysical properties of metal nanoclusters and their potential applications journal January 2019
A Disquisition on the Active Sites of Heterogeneous Catalysts for Electrochemical Reduction of CO 2 to Value‐Added Chemicals and Fuel journal November 2019
CO 2 reduction: the quest for electrocatalytic materials journal January 2017
Formic Acid Manufacture: Carbon Dioxide Utilization Alternatives journal June 2018
Bulk viscosity of CO 2 from Rayleigh-Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy at 532 nm journal April 2019
Controllable Conversion of CO 2 on Non‐Metallic Gold Clusters journal January 2020
Controllable Conversion of CO 2 on Non‐Metallic Gold Clusters journal December 2019
Active sites of ligand-protected Au 25 nanoparticle catalysts for CO 2 electroreduction to CO journal May 2016
Progress and Perspective of Electrocatalytic CO 2 Reduction for Renewable Carbonaceous Fuels and Chemicals journal September 2017
Electrochemical reduction of CO 2 to formic acid on Bi 2 O 2 CO 3 /carbon fiber electrodes journal January 2020
Recent Advances in Niobium-Based Materials for Photocatalytic Solar Fuel Production journal January 2020
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic detection of molecular chemo- and plasmo-catalysis on noble metal nanoparticles journal January 2018
Recent advances in niobium-based materials for photocatalytic solar fuel production text January 2020
Tuning Ni-Foam into NiOOH/FeOOH Heterostructures toward Superior Water Oxidation Catalyst via Three-Step Strategy journal September 2018
Gold Nanoclusters as Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion journal January 2020