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Carbon-efficient carbon dioxide electrolysers

Nature Sustainability volume 5, pages 563–573 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The electroreduction of CO2 (CO2R) is the conversion of CO2 to renewable fuels and feedstocks, a promising technology that could support the transition from fossil to renewable sources in the chemical industry. Today the viability of CO2R technology is limited by carbonate formation via the reaction of reactant CO2 with hydroxides and the energy cost incurred to regenerate the reactant. In this Review, we analyse the literature on four emerging high single pass CO2 conversion approaches: CO2 regeneration from carbonate, CO2R in acidic media, cascade CO2R-COR and CO2R direct from a capture liquid. We analyse each system, describe the challenges associated with each pathway and outline future research directions towards the goal of ensuring that CO2R is viable and thus scalable.

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Fig. 1: Carbonate formation and associated energy consumption/production penalty in alkaline and neutral media CO2R.
Fig. 2: Carbon-efficient technologies for CO2R.
Fig. 3: Performance and energy assessment of literature benchmark carbon-efficient and conventional alkaline/neutral media CO2R systems and challenges associated with carbon-efficient routes.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Ontario Research Fund: Research Excellence Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada; and infrastructure funding support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) and the Ontario Research Fund. F.P.G.d.A. acknowledges funding from CEX2019-000910-S (MCIN/ AEI/10.13039/501100011033), Fundació Cellex, Fundació Mir-Puig, Generalitat de Catalunya through CERCA and the La Caixa Foundation.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Adnan Ozden, F. Pelayo García de Arquer, Jianan Erick Huang, Joshua Wicks.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Adnan Ozden, Rui Kai Miao, Colin P. O’Brien & David Sinton

  2. ICFO–Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Barcelona, Spain

    F. Pelayo García de Arquer

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

    F. Pelayo García de Arquer, Jianan Erick Huang, Joshua Wicks, Jared Sisler, Geonhui Lee, Xue Wang, Alexander H. Ip & Edward H. Sargent

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Contributions

D.S. and E.H.S. supervised the work; A.O., D.S. and E.H.S. conceptualized the manuscript; A.O. prepared the first draft of the manuscript with input from D.S., F.P.G.d.A., J.E.H. and J.W.; J.S., R.K.M., C.P.O.'B., G.L., X.W. and A.H.I. assisted in literature review. All authors discussed the results and assisted during manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Edward H. Sargent or David Sinton.

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Ozden, A., García de Arquer, F.P., Huang, J.E. et al. Carbon-efficient carbon dioxide electrolysers. Nat Sustain 5, 563–573 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00879-8

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