Technology Summary

To combat the challenges of current CO2 electrolysis technology, a novel system was designed where O2 and high value chemicals (fuel products) are created from gaseous CO2 and water. The system uses a bipolar membrane (BPM) based electrochemical cell, similar to current systems available to split water. The BPM allows CO2 gas to be used at the cathode, eliminates the problem of separating reaction products from reactants, and minimizes the introduction of contaminants. The electrolysis cell additionally generates reaction products in the gas phase, which is advantageous in terms of the mass transport of products out of the cell and the separation of products. BPM-based cells were tested and are able to achieve high current densities and stable operation for over 14 hours.