Zero-Chem: Zerogap bipolar membrane electrolyser for CO2 reduction to chemicals & fuels

二氧化碳是一种废物分子，由许多行业和过程产生。人类正在努力防止工业过程产生二氧化碳，但钢铁制造、水泥生产和酿造等某些行业的排放很难防止。但二氧化碳不应仅仅被认为是一种废物，它可以转化为能源丰富的燃料和社会所依赖的产品(例如喷气燃料、塑料、药品)，基本上可以通过化学回收利用。电催化二氧化碳还原是将二氧化碳转化为有用产品的最有前途的方法之一。生产可储存的、高能量密度的燃料，只使用水、废二氧化碳和可再生能源，作为解决季节性能源储存的方式特别有吸引力。化工和制药行业二氧化碳衍生产品的置换也可以通过取代现有的Virigin化石衍生碳产品在实现净零方面发挥重要作用。在室温下，电催化二氧化碳减排取得了令人印象深刻的实验室成果，但当前一代设备存在一个根本性的缺陷。它们使用的条件是二氧化碳还原部位产生氢氧化物或氢氧化物已经存在。氢氧化物与二氧化碳迅速反应生成碳酸盐和重碳酸盐，这意味着它不再可用于转化。这会导致固体形成和设备故障，并降低设备的效率。据估计，回收二氧化碳至少会增加转化能源成本的50%。在许多情况下，与氢氧化物和二氧化碳之间的反应有关的能源成本超过了储存的碳基燃料或原料的能量含量。许多二氧化碳电解器不是燃料产生装置，而是燃料浪费。碳酸盐和碳酸氢盐不是在酸中形成的，它们不稳定。相反，二氧化碳仍可用于转化。但在酸中，所有使用贵金属(如金、银)的当代二氧化碳还原电极都不会产生碳产品，而是只产生氢。社区的教条是，催化剂位置不能在低pH值下操作，因为催化剂不起作用。ZeroChem方法很简单--如果催化剂不能在该过程有效运行所需的条件下工作，则需要重新设计催化剂。这项可行性研究将评估是否可以制造在强酸中工作的气体扩散电极。然后，我们将演示它们在一种新型的零间隙双极膜电解槽中的应用，以提供一种全新的二氧化碳利用方法。

Carbon dioxide is a waste molecule that is generated by many industries and processes. Humanity is striving to prevent the production of carbon dioxide by industrial processes but emissions from certain sectors such as steel manufacture, cement production and brewing are difficult to prevent. But carbon dioxide should not just be thought of as a waste product, it can be converted, essentially chemically recycled, to make the energy rich fuels and products (e.g. jet fuel, plastics, medicines) on which society relies. Electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction is one of the most promising ways to convert carbon dioxide to useful products. The generation of storable, high energy density, fuels using only water, waste carbon dioxide and renewable power is particularly attractive as way to addressing seasonal energy storage. Displacement of carbon dioxide derived products for the chemicals and pharmaceuticals industries, a sector which employs more than 150,000 people in the UK and generates more than £25 billion in value, can also play an important role in achieving net-zero by displacing existing virigin fossil derived carbon products. Impressive lab based results are being achieved for electrocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction at room temperature but the current generation of devices have a fundamental flaw. They use conditions where hydroxide is either generated or already present at the site of carbon dioxide reduction. Hydroxide reacts rapidly with carbon dioxide to form carbonate and bicarbonate, meaning that it is no longer available for conversion. This leads to solids forming and device failure as well as lowering the efficiency of the device. It is estimated that recovering the carbon dioxide adds at least 50% to the energy of cost of conversion. In many cases the energy cost associated with the reaction between hydroxide and carbon dioxide exceeds the energy content of the carbon based fuel or feedstock stored. Rather than being fuel generating devices many carbon dioxide electrolysers are fuel wasting.Carbonate and bicarbonate are not formed in acids, they are not stable. Instead the carbon dioxide remains available for conversion. But in acids all of the current generation of carbon dioxide reduction electrodes that use precious metals (e.g. gold, silver) do not produce carbon products, instead only hydrogen is made. The dogma of the community is that the catalyst site must not be operated at low pH as the catalysts do not work. The ZeroChem approach is simple - if thecatalyst does not work under the conditions that are required for the process to operate effectively then the catalyst needs to be redesigned. This feasibility study will assess if gas diffusion electrodes can be made which operate in strong acid. We will then demonstrate their use in a novel type of zero-gap bipolar membrane electrolyser to deliver an entirely new approach to carbon dioxide utilisation.