Trends in Green Chemistry Open Access

Electrochemical reactor design/fabrication for CO2 electroreduction to low-carbon fuels/chemicals

Joint Event: 5^th International Conference on Green Chemistry and Technology & 6^th International Conference on Environmental Chemistry and Engineering

July 24-26, 2017 Rome, Italy

Yuyu Liu and Jinli Qiao

Shanghai University, China
Donghua University, China

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Trends in Green chem

Abstract:

Extra emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, induced by human industrial activities, has been considered one of the primary causes in possible global warming due to the greenhouse effect, and also becoming an increasing concern in recent years. To address this issue, using electrochemical reduction to convert CO2 to useful small fuels such as CH4, CH3OH, HCOOH, C2H2, etc., represents a value-added approach to the simultaneous generation of alternative fuels and environmental remediation of carbon emissions from the continued use of conventional fuels. Many references in the literature have focused on studies with improving the performance of electrochemical process to convert CO2 into low-carbon fuels/chemicals. For reactor components, both anodes and cathodes are discussed in terms of their materials, structure, design, fabrication, as well as their effects on the reactor�s performance and productivity. Several important electrodes are described including metallic electrodes, gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) and modified metal electrodes in both aqueous and non-aqueous electrolyte solutions. Both the ion-exchange membranes for low-temperature operation, and the solid oxide electrolyte layers for high-temperature operation, can serve as both functions of ion conduction and electrode separating. Regarding the electrochemical reactor design/assembling/fabrication for CO2 reduction, several types of the reactors, including the conventional three-electrode cells, the low temperature two-electrode cells using proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology, the solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) and the microbial electrolysis cells (MECs), as well as other electrolysis cells, are introduced and their performances are also analyzed. The potential and feasibility of the reactor scale-up for CO2 conversion to low-carbon fuels/chemicals is discussed with respect to the technology�s commercialization.

Biography :

Email: liuyuyu@shu.edu.cn