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An industrial perspective on catalysts for low-temperature CO2 electrolysis

Nature Nanotechnology volume 16, pages 118–128 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Electrochemical conversion of CO2 to useful products at temperatures below 100 °C is nearing the commercial scale. Pilot units for CO2 conversion to CO are already being tested. Units to convert CO2 to formic acid are projected to reach pilot scale in the next year. Further, several investigators are starting to observe industrially relevant rates of the electrochemical conversion of CO2 to ethanol and ethylene, with the hydrogen needed coming from water. In each case, Faradaic efficiencies of 80% or more and current densities above 200 mA cm−2 can be reproducibly achieved. Here we describe the key advances in nanocatalysts that lead to the impressive performance, indicate where additional work is needed and provide benchmarks that others can use to compare their results.

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Fig. 1: An artist’s illustration of a CO2 electrode.
Fig. 2: An illustration of how various factors affect the cost of producing CO.

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Acknowledgements

Parts of this work were supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), under contracts DE-FE0031706 and DE-SC0018540. The opinions here are those of the authors and may not reflect the opinions of the DOE. S.R., D.C. and C.P.B. are grateful to the Natural Resources Canada’s Energy Innovation Program (RGPIN-2018-06748) and Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (BSE-BERL-162173) for financial support.

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  1. Dioxide Materials, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Richard I. Masel, Zengcai Liu, Hongzhou Yang, Jerry J. Kaczur & Daniel Carrillo

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

    Shaoxuan Ren, Danielle Salvatore & Curtis P. Berlinguette

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Dioxide Materials is in the business of producing and selling materials for CO2 electrolysers including catalyst-coated electrodes. R.I.M., Z.L., H.Y., J.J.K. and D.C. have an interest in those sales.

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Masel, R.I., Liu, Z., Yang, H. et al. An industrial perspective on catalysts for low-temperature CO2 electrolysis. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 118–128 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-00823-x

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