(671e) Building the Next Generation of Electrochemical Reactors through Advanced Manufacturing

Our planet must address pressing global issues such as climate security, food and water quality, and growing energy demand. Reactor design and manufacturing – in addition to utilizing renewable sources of power – is central to achieving progress toward addressing these concerns, particularly through electrochemical production of chemical precursors and removal of toxins and pollutants from air, water and food sources. Furthermore, understanding the mass transport phenomena occurring within these electrochemical reactors must be developed to build more efficient and effective systems. To date, the vast majority of published reports on electrochemical reactors and electrocatalysis have relied on components produced by traditional manufacturing methods, which are time- and resource intensive and can severely limit the overall system performance of the reactor.

Advanced manufacturing (AM) is a promising method that holds great potential for creating novel electrochemical reactors and overcoming the limitations of conventional reactor designs, as it allows for rapid prototyping and iteration of reactor components and parts with submicron control. In this work, we demonstrate that by using AM to create electrochemical reactors, we can (1) reduce the time and cost to make electrolyzers by two orders of magnitude, (2) design and control catalyst structures with optimized fluid dynamics, (3) understand mass transport phenomena from the sub-micron through the centimeter length scales inside the reactor, and (4) improve the performance for electrocatalysis, including conversion of waste carbon and nitrogen to valuable products. By combining AM and electrochemical engineering, we show that we can shift the paradigm on reactor design and create the next generation of electrochemical reactors.

This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.