Challenges and Opportunities in Transitioning Electrochemical Conversion of CO₂ and other Renewable Feedstocks to Deployable Technology

Over the past decade or so, the electrochemical reduction of CO₂ has evolved from a barely studied topic to one of the most active research areas in the fields of electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering. The ongoing process of ‘the energy transition’, spurred by the need to drastically reduce global CO₂ emissions to achieve global sustainability, has driven the vigorous pursuit of different electrocatalysts, electrodes, and electrolyzer configurations that are able to reduce CO₂ -- an abundantly available, renewable feedstock -- to different value-added intermediates or products. These efforts go beyond ‘just’ CO₂ reduction. Electro-oxidation of for example renewable, bio-derived adducts for the manufacturing of chemicals that traditionally are derived from fossil fuels is also an active area of study. With many selective and efficient catalysts now available for these types of electro-oxidations and -reductions, attention has started to shift to topics such as catalyst stability, electrode durability, and electrolysis reactor design. <br/>This presentation will provide insights into a number of practical aspects of turning advances in electrocatalyst and electrode design into scalable, durable processes. For example, CO₂ reduction is often unavoidably accompanied by carbonate formation. How can one suppress carbonate formation, or minimize the effects of carbonate formation on electrolysis performance? Can CO₂ electrolyzers operate on dilute CO₂ feeds, recognizing that CO₂ capture and its concentration, especially from the air, is highly energy intensive, regardless of what method is used? How realistic, technically and from a life-cycle perspective, are less energy-intense electrolytic co-conversion approaches where CO₂ is reduced on the anode in parallel with oxidation of a renewable substrate to a desired product on the anode (e.g. glycerol to lactic acid)? What are some of the typical byproduct waste streams available from biomass processing, e.g. ‘crude glycerol’ which also contains various amounts of NaOH, water, and methanol, and can one develop an electrolysis system and process that can tolerate the range in compositions? This presentation will explore some of these aforementioned challenges and opportunities based on our work as well as work by others in reactor engineering, process design, and techno-economic / life cycle analysis.