Dear Colleagues,

CO₂ reduction through the electrochemical pathway has attracted considerable attention as a result of its unique advantages: (1) CO₂ can be reduced by electrons instead of hydrogen; (2) the electrocatalytic process can take place under mild conditions; (3) the reduction products can be adjusted by the redox potential, reaction temperature, electrolytes, etc. Electrochemical CO₂ reduction could be achieved through multiple electron transfer in an aqueous solution with appropriate electrocatalysts to produce different products, such as carbon monoxide, methane, ethylene, and even liquid products (formic acid, methanol, and ethanol). The success of the electrochemical approach depends upon researchers’ efforts to increase the Faraday efficiency and current density to optimize the reaction rate and product selectivity. In these reactions, water-based electrolytes act both as the proton source and the ion conductive medium. However, the solubility of CO₂ in water is limited, leading to a constrained mass transfer rate and limited current density. Therefore, it is critical to design efficient devices to facilitate the controlling steps in line with new engineering principles.

In recent years, different devices have been developed with respect to different engineering problems, such as the gas diffusion electrode to resolve the issue of low gas solubility and Taylor flow to ensure gas/liquid mass transfer without agitation. Such progress are very promising in promoting CO₂ electroreduction from the catalyst development stage to commercial application.

This Special Issue, entitled “CO₂ Reduction: Novel Device and Engineering Innovation”, is dedicated to providing a platform to highlight the recent advances in this field. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Engineering innovations in solving the problems in the CO₂ electroreduction process;
• Design of novel devices in CO₂ electroreduction;
• Investigations into the operation of different kinds of CO₂ electroreduction devices;
• Gas–liquid–solid interface engineering: simulation and experiments.

Prof. Dr. Zhen-Min Cheng
Prof. Dr. Bo Zhang
Guest Editors

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• CO₂ conversion
• electroreduction
• device design
• gas/liquid flow
• CFD simulation
• interfacial engineering
• process intensification