Coming up with novel ways to use carbon captured from industrial processes will be a crucial step in addressing climate change. Coupling the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction with the oxidation of a byproduct from the pulp and paper industry represents a promising outlet for carbon utilization.
Those are the results of a new study, which finds that this unique reaction pairing has a 10% higher energy efficiency than the typical coupling of carbon dioxide reduction and oxygen evolution. Such an efficiency boost could lead to more economically viable carbon capture projects, says Ali Seifitokaldani, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at McGill Univ. in Canada.
“On an industrial scale, it could be huge,” Seifitokaldani says.
Seifitokaldani and his team have been working on improving the energy efficiency of carbon dioxide electrolyzers for over a decade. In any electrochemical reaction, the desired reaction must be coupled with a counterreaction. In CO2 reduction, that counterreaction is usually oxygen evolution....
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