Published November 29, 2021 | Version v1
Data paper Open

Continuous electroreduction of CO2 towards formate in gas-phase operation at high current densities with an anion exchange membrane

  • 1. ROR icon Universidad de Cantabria

Abstract (English)

The carbon dioxide (CO2) electroreduction to formate is nowadays considered as a promising approach to convert CO2 into a value-added product and simultaneously, in the context of strategies for mitigating climate change. However, there is a scarce number of studies published in the literature operating with a current density higher than 200 mA cm−2, and there is the need of operating at higher current densities, with acceptable performance and low penalty in terms of energy consumption, for future implementation at industrial scale. Thus, in this work, a novel configuration is studied using a filter press reactor in a continuous mode, with a single pass of the reactants through the cell, employing a Sustainion anion exchange membrane and working with a current density up to 600 mA cm−2. Using the same electrocatalysts, the configuration shows a similar performance to the GDE configuration with liquid electrolyte, but with the advantage of operating only with a vapour input to the cathode and avoiding the need for a liquid catholyte. Although at the expense of obtaining a more diluted product, excellent combinations of Faradaic Efficiency for formate (73.7 %), energy consumptions (342 kWh·kmol-1), and product rates (22.9 mmol m−2·s-1) can be achieved at high current densities. Therefore, the configuration with Sustainion membranes reported in this manuscript can be particularly interesting for future applications that do not involve a very concentrated formate product.

Notes (English)

Authors fully acknowledge the financial support received from the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) through the projects PID2019-108136RB-C31 (AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and PID2020-112845RB-I00 (AEI/10.13039/501100011033). We are also grateful for the nanoparticles prepared and provided by the group of Prof. V. Montiel and Dr. José Solla-Gullón from the Institute of Electrochemistry of the University of Alicante. The authors also thank BioRender.com online software as this science illustration tool has allowed to create some of the figures of this manuscript.

 

Files

Files (12.8 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:50266379579597cff58165dc5cd2ed97
12.8 kB Download

Additional details

Related works

Is published in
2212-9839 (ISSN)

Dates

Accepted
2021-11-22
Available
2021-11-29