A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction
Utilizing CO2 as a resource for CO production in electrochemical reactors requires gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) that maintain a stable and highly reactive gas/liquid/solid interface. When scaling the process towards industrial application, the pressure difference in the electrolyte channel increas...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Electrochemistry Communications |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388248123000619 |
| _version_ | 1797842458096173056 |
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| author | Maren Großeheide Dominik Schaffeld Robert Keller Matthias Wessling |
| author_facet | Maren Großeheide Dominik Schaffeld Robert Keller Matthias Wessling |
| author_sort | Maren Großeheide |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Utilizing CO2 as a resource for CO production in electrochemical reactors requires gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) that maintain a stable and highly reactive gas/liquid/solid interface. When scaling the process towards industrial application, the pressure difference in the electrolyte channel increases, amplifying instabilities at the multi-phase boundary inside the GDE. To tackle this challenge, a falling film design where the electrolyte is solely driven downwards by gravity is presented in this work. The hydrostatic pressure is then counter weighed by the hydrodynamic pressure drop, leading to a constant pressure between gas and liquid side over the height of the electrode. Three 3D-printed electrolyte frame designs were compared in a flow cell regarding the liquid distribution in the channel. An even distribution could be achieved with 2 mm channel thickness at an electrolyte flow rate of 4000 mL min−1. Electrolysis experiments were carried out using a 100 cm2 silver GDE. Compared to a conventional electrolyte frame design, the falling film design yielded stable process conditions with a Faraday Efficiency to CO of up to 90 % at 100 mA cm−2 and a cell voltage of 5.5 V. The presented design presents a pathway for scaling CO2 electrolyzers in height and sustains a stable long-term process. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T16:48:13Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9f861becfd9d4325b139f843071be851 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1388-2481 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T16:48:13Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Electrochemistry Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-9f861becfd9d4325b139f843071be8512023-04-22T06:20:42ZengElsevierElectrochemistry Communications1388-24812023-05-01150107487A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reductionMaren Großeheide0Dominik Schaffeld1Robert Keller2Matthias Wessling3RWTH Aachen University, AVT.CVT - Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering, Forckenbeckstrasse 51, 52074 Aachen, GermanyRWTH Aachen University, AVT.CVT - Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering, Forckenbeckstrasse 51, 52074 Aachen, GermanyRWTH Aachen University, AVT.CVT - Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering, Forckenbeckstrasse 51, 52074 Aachen, GermanyRWTH Aachen University, AVT.CVT - Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering, Forckenbeckstrasse 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany; DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials, Forckenbeckstrasse 50, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Corresponding author at: RWTH Aachen University, AVT.CVT - Department of Chemical Engineering, Chemical Process Engineering, Forckenbeckstrasse 51, 52074 Aachen, Germany.Utilizing CO2 as a resource for CO production in electrochemical reactors requires gas diffusion electrodes (GDE) that maintain a stable and highly reactive gas/liquid/solid interface. When scaling the process towards industrial application, the pressure difference in the electrolyte channel increases, amplifying instabilities at the multi-phase boundary inside the GDE. To tackle this challenge, a falling film design where the electrolyte is solely driven downwards by gravity is presented in this work. The hydrostatic pressure is then counter weighed by the hydrodynamic pressure drop, leading to a constant pressure between gas and liquid side over the height of the electrode. Three 3D-printed electrolyte frame designs were compared in a flow cell regarding the liquid distribution in the channel. An even distribution could be achieved with 2 mm channel thickness at an electrolyte flow rate of 4000 mL min−1. Electrolysis experiments were carried out using a 100 cm2 silver GDE. Compared to a conventional electrolyte frame design, the falling film design yielded stable process conditions with a Faraday Efficiency to CO of up to 90 % at 100 mA cm−2 and a cell voltage of 5.5 V. The presented design presents a pathway for scaling CO2 electrolyzers in height and sustains a stable long-term process.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388248123000619Electrochemical CO2 reductionScale-upprocess designreactor design |
| spellingShingle | Maren Großeheide Dominik Schaffeld Robert Keller Matthias Wessling A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction Electrochemistry Communications Electrochemical CO2 reduction Scale-up process design reactor design |
| title | A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction |
| title_full | A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction |
| title_fullStr | A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction |
| title_full_unstemmed | A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction |
| title_short | A falling film design for electrochemical CO2 reduction |
| title_sort | falling film design for electrochemical co2 reduction |
| topic | Electrochemical CO2 reduction Scale-up process design reactor design |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1388248123000619 |
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