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Technical photosynthesis involving CO2 electrolysis and fermentation

Nature Catalysis volume 1, pages 32–39 (2018)Cite this article

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Abstract

Solar-powered electrochemical reduction of CO2 and H2O to syngas, followed by fermentation, could lead to sustainable production of useful chemicals. However, due to insufficient electric current densities and instabilities of current CO2-to-CO electrolysers, a practical, scalable artificial photosynthesis remains a major challenge. Here, we address these problems using a commercially available silver-based gas diffusion electrode (used in industrial-scale chlorine–alkaline electrolysis) as the cathode in the CO2 electrolyser. Electric current densities up to 300 mA cm–2 were demonstrated for more than 1,200 hours with continuous operation. This CO2 electrolyser was coupled to a fermentation module, where the out-coming syngas from the CO2 electrolyser was converted to butanol and hexanol with high carbon selectivity. Conversion of photovoltaic electricity, CO2 and H2O to the desired alcohols achieved close to 100% Faradaic efficiency. Industrial production of useful and high-value chemicals via artificial photosynthesis is closer than expected with the proposed scalable hybrid system.

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Fig. 1: Sketch of the modules used in technical photosynthesis of 1-butanol and 1-hexanol from CO2 and H2O.
Fig. 2: Scheme and properties of the CO2 electrolyser.
Fig. 3: Further properties of the CO2 electrolyser shown in Fig. 2a.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank R. K. Thauer (Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg) for his help in preparing the manuscript. Evonik Creavis GmbH (T.H. and M.D.), Siemens AG (R.K. and G.S.) and Covestro AG (R.W.) thank the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding part of this work within the Kopernikus Initiative ‘Power-to-X’ under contract number P2X-03SFK2J0.

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  1. Ralf Krause and Martin Demler contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Evonik Creavis GmbH, Marl, Germany

    Thomas Haas & Martin Demler

  2. Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany

    Ralf Krause & Guenter Schmid

  3. Covestro AG, Leverkusen, Germany

    Rainer Weber

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Contributions

G.S. and R.W. discovered the potential of oxygen depolarized cathodes (ODC) for electrochemical CO2-reduction. T.H. and M.D. are responsible for the fermentation part. G.S. and R.K. are responsible for the electrochemical part. M.D. and R.K. performed the laboratory work. G.S. and T.H. are heading the corresponding technology programmes at Siemens AG and Evonik Creavis GmbH, respectively, and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Guenter Schmid.

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Haas, T., Krause, R., Weber, R. et al. Technical photosynthesis involving CO2 electrolysis and fermentation. Nat Catal 1, 32–39 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-017-0005-1

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