Volume 2, 2024

Insights into zero-gap CO2 electrolysis at elevated temperatures

Abstract

Renewable-powered CO2 electrolysis (CO2E) is a promising strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by transforming CO2 into valuable feedstocks. While recent studies in this field have focused on developing efficient catalyst materials or electrolyzer engineering, the operating temperature's effect has not been systematically examined for zero-gap electrolyzers. To examine the effects of operating temperature, a systematic investigation was conducted using zero-gap (MEA) Cu-based GDEs across a range from room temperature to 80 °C. Our results indicate that increasing the temperature improves CO2 mass transport, ionic conductivity, and water management, allowing for high catalytic activity toward CO2E. At operating temperatures greater than 50 °C, selectivity shifted substantially towards CO, with surface enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) showing a concomitant decrease in surface CO coverage at and above this temperature. As commercial electrolyzers will operate at elevated temperatures due to ohmic heating, they may produce a significantly different product distribution than the room-temperature electrolysis prevalent in the literature. Experiments at elevated temperatures demonstrated improved results for CO2E with industrially relevant current densities (150 mA cm−2) over an extended operational period (>200 hours). Additionally, we found that the heating method strongly affects product selectivity and the electrolyzer's performance, emphasizing the need to ensure proper heating while working under these reaction systems.

Graphical abstract: Insights into zero-gap CO2 electrolysis at elevated temperatures

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Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 9月 2023
Accepted
05 2月 2024
First published
28 2月 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

EES. Catal., 2024,2, 850-861

Insights into zero-gap CO2 electrolysis at elevated temperatures

C. A. Giron Rodriguez, N. C. Kani, A. B. Moss, B. O. Joensen, S. Garg, W. Deng, T. Wilson, J. R. Varcoe, I. Chorkendorff and B. Seger, EES. Catal., 2024, 2, 850 DOI: 10.1039/D3EY00224A

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