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High-purity and high-concentration liquid fuels through CO2 electroreduction

Nature Catalysis volume 4, pages 943–951 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

Liquid fuels generated from the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) are of particular interest due to their high energy densities and ease of storage and distribution. Unfortunately, they are typically formed in low concentrations and mixed with impurities due to the current limitations of traditional CO2 electrolysers as well as CO2RR catalysts. In this Perspective, we emphasize that while the declining renewable electricity price can greatly lower the formation cost of liquid fuels, the downstream purification process will add an extra layer of cost that greatly harms their economic feasibility for large-scale applications. Different strategies in reactor engineering and catalyst improvement are proposed to realize the direct and continuous generation of high-purity and high-concentration liquid fuels from CO2RR electrolysers, allowing this electrochemical route to become more competitive compared with the traditional chemical engineering industry in the future.

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Fig. 1: Overview of CO2RR technology and downstream liquid product separation.
Fig. 2: CO2RR electrocatalysts for liquid fuels and technoeconomic considerations.
Fig. 3: Solid-electrolyte reactors.
Fig. 4: CO2 electrolyser designs for high-purity and high-concentration liquid fuels.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the support from the NSF program (project grant 2029442), the ACS PRF no. 62074-DNI5 and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Packard Fellowship program (grant no. 2020–71371).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Peng Zhu & Haotian Wang

  2. Department of Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Haotian Wang

  3. Department of Chemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Haotian Wang

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  1. Peng Zhu
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H.W. supervised the project. P.Z. summarized the data. P.Z. and H.W. co-wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Haotian Wang.

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Peer review information Nature Catalysis thanks David Wakerley and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–3, Figs. 1 and 2 and Note 1.

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Zhu, P., Wang, H. High-purity and high-concentration liquid fuels through CO2 electroreduction. Nat Catal 4, 943–951 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-021-00694-y

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