Scale Effect on Producing Gaseous and Liquid Chemical Fuels via CO 2 Reduction

Ya Liu, Dan Lei, Xiaoqi Guo, Tengfei Ma, Feng Wang and Yubin Chen
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Ya Liu: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Dan Lei: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Xiaoqi Guo: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Tengfei Ma: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Feng Wang: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
Yubin Chen: State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Producing chemical fuels from sunlight is a sustainable way to utilize solar energy and reduce carbon emissions. Within the current photovoltaic-electrolysis or photoelectrochemical-based solar fuel generation system, electrochemical CO 2 reduction is the key step. Although there has been important progress in developing new materials and devices, scaling up electrochemical CO 2 reduction is essential to promote the industrial application of this technology. In this work, we use Ag and In as the representative electrocatalyst for producing gas and liquid products in both small and big electrochemical cells. We find that gas production is blocked more easily than liquid products when scaling up the electrochemical cell. Simulation results show that the generated gas product, CO, forms bubbles on the surface of the electrocatalyst, thus blocking the transport of CO 2 , while there is no such trouble for producing the liquid product such as formate. This work provides methods for studying the mass transfer of CO, and it is also an important reference for scaling up solar fuel generation devices that are constructed based on electrochemical CO 2 reduction.

Keywords: electrochemical; CO 2; CO; formate; fuel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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