By Ashwini Sakharkar 16 Sep, 2024
Collected at: https://www.techexplorist.com/new-electrochemical-cell-converts-captured-carbon-green-fuel/89692/
Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have made significant progress in converting captured carbon into a formate solution, a green fuel, using an innovative electrochemical cell. This technology overcomes major issues in reactive carbon capture and achieves performances rivaling energy-intensive gas-fed methods. These advancements directly contribute to waste stream valorization and are crucial for achieving net zero emissions.
Carbon capture technology plays a crucial role in the global effort to combat climate change. However, the question of what to do with the captured carbon dioxide remains a major challenge. Scientists are exploring advanced catalysts and chemical processes to potentially convert the captured carbon into more useful products for society.
An exciting opportunity lies in the potential to convert carbon dioxide into a sustainable fuel. Novel electrochemical cell technology has emerged for transforming carbon dioxide into formate, a compound that can be utilized in formate fuel cells to produce power. However, the major obstacle is the requirement for pure carbon dioxide, which can be extremely energy-intensive to pressurize.
Additionally, gas conversion and cell durability are areas of concern. A solution is reactive carbon capture, in which carbon dioxide dissolved in bicarbonate solutions can be directly used to generate formate ions.
The primary challenge for researchers is to design an improved electrochemical cell that can selectively produce formate ions from bicarbonate ions, while minimizing side reactions such as hydrogen production.
Now, the team of researchers led by Professor Fumiaki Amano from Tokyo Metropolitan University has developed a new cell with remarkable selectivity for converting bicarbonate ions into formate ions. The cell utilizes electrodes made of catalytic material, a polymer electrolyte membrane, and a porous membrane made of cellulose ester. With this setup, the cell efficiently produces carbon dioxide in the pores and then converts the gas to formate ions at the other electrode.
The cell has demonstrated a faradaic efficiency of 85% and has operated smoothly for over 30 hours, achieving a nearly complete conversion of bicarbonate to formate. This advancement presents a promising development in the production of solid, crystalline formate fuel.
When the cell was tested, it demonstrated an impressive 85% faradaic efficiency in converting electrons into formate, even at high currents. Not only does this surpass current designs, but the cell also operated continuously for over 30 hours and achieved almost complete conversion of bicarbonate to formate. Following water removal, only solid, crystalline formate fuel remains.
With growing demands for climate change solutions, advancements in the efficient operation of electrochemical cells such as this one hold significant promise. The team envisions the bicarbonate electrolyzer as a viable option as our society endeavors to embrace a greener future.
Journal reference:
- Kohta Nomoto, Takuya Okazaki, Kosuke Beppu, Tetsuya Shishido, and Fumiaki Amano. Highly selective formate formation via bicarbonate conversions. EES Catalysis, 2024; DOI: 10.1039/D4EY00122B
Leave a Reply