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Gas diffusion electrodes, reactor designs and key metrics of low-temperature CO2 electrolysers

Nature Energy volume 7, pages 130–143 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

CO2 emissions can be recycled via low-temperature CO2 electrolysis to generate products such as carbon monoxide, ethanol, ethylene, acetic acid, formic acid and propanol. In recent years, progress has been made towards an industrially relevant performance by leveraging the development of gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs), which enhance the mass transport of reactant gases (for example, CO2) to the active electrocatalyst. Innovations in GDE design have thus set new benchmarks for CO2 conversion activity. In this Review, we discuss GDE-based CO2 electrolysers, in terms of reactor designs, GDE composition and failure modes, to identify the key advances and remaining shortfalls of the technology. This is combined with an overview of the partial current densities, efficiencies and stabilities currently achieved and an outlook on how phenomena such as carbonate formation could influence the future direction of the field. Our aim is to capture insights that can accelerate the development of industrially relevant CO2 electrolysers.

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Fig. 1: CO2 electrolysis on a GDE.
Fig. 2: Components of a GDE CO2 electrolyser.
Fig. 3: Benchmarks in potential-dependent activity.
Fig. 4: C2 reaction pathways and common failure modes on GDE reactor cathodes.
Fig. 5: Metrics and progress in activity.
Fig. 6: Durability of reported CO2 electrolysers and the lowest achievable overpotentials.

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Acknowledgements

D.W., S.L., D.C., J.W., A.S., S.A.J., M.F., E.H.S., T.F.J. and C.H. acknowledge financial support from TotalEnergies SE. D.C., J.F., A.C., E.D. and S.B. contributed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344 within the LDRD program 19-SI-005 and CRADA TC02307, IM: LLNL-JRNL-818573. J.W. and E.H.S. acknowledge funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada. D.W. acknowledges financial support from the Lindemann Trust Fellowship. S.L. was funded by the Corps des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts. J.W. acknowledges financial support from the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS) program and the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship—Doctoral (PGS-D) program. D.C. acknowledges financial support from the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) and GEM Fellowship at Stanford University and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, respectively.

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: David Wakerley, Sarah Lamaison, Joshua Wicks, Auston Clemens, Jeremy Feaster, Daniel Corral.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    David Wakerley, Sarah Lamaison, Daniel Corral, Amitava Sarkar & Thomas F. Jaramillo

  2. Dioxycle SAS, Bordeaux, France

    David Wakerley & Sarah Lamaison

  3. Collège de France, Sorbonne Université, PSL University, Laboratoire de Chimie des Processus Biologiques, CNRS UMR 8229, Paris, France

    Sarah Lamaison & Marc Fontecave

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Joshua Wicks & Edward H. Sargent

  5. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA

    Auston Clemens, Jeremy Feaster, Daniel Corral, Amitava Sarkar, Eric B. Duoss, Sarah Baker & Christopher Hahn

  6. TotalEnergies American Services Inc., Hopkinton, MA, USA

    Shaffiq A. Jaffer

  7. TotalEnergies EP Research & Technology USA, LLC, Houston, TX, USA

    Amitava Sarkar

  8. SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park, CA, USA

    Thomas F. Jaramillo & Christopher Hahn

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Correspondence to Edward H. Sargent, Thomas F. Jaramillo or Christopher Hahn.

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Competing interests

D.W. and S.L. are, respectively, the chief technology officer (CTO) and chief executive officer (CEO) of Dioxycle, which develops low-temperature CO2 electrolysers. A.S. and S.A.J. are full-time employees of TotalEnergies SE, which is sponsoring R&D programmes focused on the ‘development of a viable low-temperature CO2 electrocatalysis technology’ at Collège de France, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Stanford University and the University of Toronto.

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Wakerley, D., Lamaison, S., Wicks, J. et al. Gas diffusion electrodes, reactor designs and key metrics of low-temperature CO2 electrolysers. Nat Energy 7, 130–143 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00973-9

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