Scaleup of CO2 Electrolyzers

This paper will discuss Dioxide Materials efforts to scale their existing CO₂ electrolyzers from the 1.5 watt laboratory units to 10 kW pilot scale units. Efforts included increasing the current per unit area from 200 mA/cm² to 500 mA/cm², switching from single cells with 5 cm² active area to stacks of cells each of which had 600 cm². New issues that arose including maintaining electrical contact over a large area, developing improved methods for bubble removal, developing a cooling system to maintain cell temperatures, and installing the needed safety systems. Improvements that allowed the needed performance to be achieved will be discussed.