Electroreduction of CO2 to Fuels and Chemicals

A special issue of Electrochem (ISSN 2673-3293).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 7972

Special Issue Editors

Department of Engineering, University Loyola Andalucía, Seville, Spain
Interests: heterogeneous catalysis; biomass conversion; energy storage; green chemistry; biofuels; hydrogen production; electrocatalysis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gasses such as CO2 have been pointed out to contribute to climate change. In order to mitigate climate change, a number of approaches have been proposed to reduce the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. In this sense, electroreduction of CO2 allows the potential reutilization and transformation of CO2 into high added value chemicals by using renewable energy such as wind power and solar energy. A wide variety of products including CO, syngas (CO/H2), CH4, and methanol, among others, have been obtained with high faradaic yields via electroreduction of CO2. Nevertheless, research is still required on: (i) new (and cheaper) electrocatalyst formulations with high faradaic selectivities; (ii) new electrochemical reactor configurations able to overcome kinetic/mass transport limitations and therefore reduce the overpotential of the reduction processes; and (iii) mitigation of the competing H2 evolution reaction. The present special issue is devoted to gather these efforts of the research community worldwide and present the most relevant technologies allowing this paradigmatic conversion.

Prof. Dr. Juan Carlos Serrano-Ruiz
Dr. Ana Cristina Perez
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • carbon dioxide
  • electroreduction
  • heterogeneous catalysis
  • renawable energy
  • environmental change
  • fuels
  • electrocatalysis

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 418 KiB  
Editorial
Electrochemical Reduction of CO2: Overcoming Chemical Inertness at Ambient Conditions
by Ana Cristina Perez, Manuel Antonio Diaz-Perez and Juan Carlos Serrano-Ruiz
Electrochem 2020, 1(1), 56-59; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electrochem1010006 - 13 Mar 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2533
Abstract
Electroreduction allows for the transformation of a chemically inert molecule such as CO2 into a wide variety of useful carbon products. Unlike other approaches operating at higher temperatures, electrochemical reduction holds great promise since it achieves reduction under ambient conditions, thereby providing [...] Read more.
Electroreduction allows for the transformation of a chemically inert molecule such as CO2 into a wide variety of useful carbon products. Unlike other approaches operating at higher temperatures, electrochemical reduction holds great promise since it achieves reduction under ambient conditions, thereby providing more control over the reaction selectivity. By controlling basic parameters such as the potential and the composition of the electrode, CO2 can be transformed into a variety of products including carbon monoxide, syngas (CO/H2), methane, and methanol. This reduction process takes place without external hydrogen, since water can be used as a source of both electrons and protons. Furthermore, this technology, when combined with renewable wind- or solar-derived electricity, has the potential to serve as a storage system for excess electricity. Despite these advantages, a number of challenges need to be overcome before reaching commercialization. New (and cheaper) electrocatalyst formulations with high faradaic selectivities are required. Impressive progress has been made on carbon-doped materials, which, in certain cases, have outperformed expensive noble metal-based materials. Research is also needed on new electrochemical reactor configurations able to overcome kinetic/mass transport limitations, which are crucial to reduce overpotentials. Fine control over the nature of the active sites and the reaction conditions is important to avoid parasitic reactions such as the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), and therefore increases the faradaic efficiency towards the desired products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electroreduction of CO2 to Fuels and Chemicals)
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Research

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7 pages, 968 KiB  
Communication
Direct Electrochemical Reduction of Bicarbonate to Formate Using Tin Catalyst
by Andreu Bonet Navarro, Adrianna Nogalska and Ricard Garcia-Valls
Electrochem 2021, 2(1), 64-70; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/electrochem2010006 - 10 Feb 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4598
Abstract
Nowadays, the self-accelerating increase in global temperatures strengthens the idea that the cutting of CO2 emissions will not be enough to avoid climate change, thus CO2 from the atmosphere must be removed. This gas can be easily trapped by converting it [...] Read more.
Nowadays, the self-accelerating increase in global temperatures strengthens the idea that the cutting of CO2 emissions will not be enough to avoid climate change, thus CO2 from the atmosphere must be removed. This gas can be easily trapped by converting it to bicarbonate using hydroxide solutions. However, bicarbonate must be converted into a more valuable product to make this technology profitable. Several studies show great efficiency when reducing bicarbonate solutions saturated with pure CO2 gas to formate. However, those approaches don’t have a real application and our objective was to obtain similar results without pure CO2 saturation. The method consists of electroreduction of the bicarbonate solution using bulk tin (Sn) as catalysts. Tin is a relatively cheap material that, according to previous studies performed in saturated bicarbonate solutions, shows a great selectivity towards formate. The 1H NMR analysis of bicarbonate solutions after electroreduction show that, without pure CO2 gas, the faradic efficiency is around 18% but almost 50% for saturated ones. The formate obtained could be used to power formate/formic acid fuel cells obtaining a battery-like system, with greater energy density than common lithium batteries, but electroreduction efficiency needs to be improved to make them competitive. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Electroreduction of CO2 to Fuels and Chemicals)
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