Gas diffusion electrodes, reactor designs and key metrics of low-temperature CO2 electrolysers

• Published in: Nature energy Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 130 - 143
• Main Authors: Wakerley, David, Lamaison, Sarah, Wicks, Joshua, Clemens, Auston, Feaster, Jeremy, Corral, Daniel, Jaffer, Shaffiq A., Sarkar, Amitava, Fontecave, Marc, Duoss, Eric B., Baker, Sarah, Sargent, Edward H., Jaramillo, Thomas F., Hahn, Christopher
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.02.2022; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/4077/4057; 639/4077/909/4101/4102; 639/638/77/886; Acetic acid; Benchmarks; Carbon dioxide; Carbon dioxide emissions; Carbon monoxide; Catalysts; Diffusion; Diffusion electrodes; Economics and Management; Electrocatalysts; Electrodes; Electrolysis; Emissions; Energy; Energy Policy; Energy Storage; Energy Systems; Ethanol; Failure modes; Formic acid; Gaseous diffusion; Gases; Low temperature; Mass transport; Nuclear fuels; Propanol; Reactors; Renewable and Green Energy; Review Article
• ISSN: 2058-7546
• DOI: 10.1038/s41560-021-00973-9

CO 2 emissions can be recycled via low-temperature CO 2 electrolysis to generate products such as carbon monoxide, ethanol, ethylene, acetic acid, formic acid and propanol. In recent years, progress has been made towards an industrially relevant performance by leveraging the development of gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs), which enhance the mass transport of reactant gases (for example, CO 2 ) to the active electrocatalyst. Innovations in GDE design have thus set new benchmarks for CO 2 conversion activity. In this Review, we discuss GDE-based CO 2 electrolysers, in terms of reactor designs, GDE composition and failure modes, to identify the key advances and remaining shortfalls of the technology. This is combined with an overview of the partial current densities, efficiencies and stabilities currently achieved and an outlook on how phenomena such as carbonate formation could influence the future direction of the field. Our aim is to capture insights that can accelerate the development of industrially relevant CO 2 electrolysers. Chemicals and fuels can be generated from CO 2 via electrolysers that employ gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs). In this Review, the authors consider promising catalysts and reactors—and how these fail—to identify key advances and remaining gaps in the development of industrially relevant GDE-based CO 2 electrolysers.