Electrocatalytic conversion of carbon dioxide into synthetic building blocks

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Technologies that capture and utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) from air are gaining attention from industries and governments to target greenhouse gas emissions from non-point sources such as buildings and transportation. Carbon Engineering (Squamish, BC) is a pioneer in this area and is commercializing technology that can capture atmospheric CO2 on a large scale. In Carbon Engineering's current system, CO2 is captured from the air and isolated using a process that requires a large amount of energy, which contributes heavily to the cost of capturing CO2. The aim of this project is to intervene in this process by designing a system that can convert captured CO2 directly into chemicals of economic value, namely, precursors for fuels and chemicals. Using novel methods pioneered by our laboratories, this project will seek to rapidly discover new nanomaterials that can mediate the conversion process with the necessary scalability, low-cost, durability, and product selectivity to be incorporated into a commercializable system. We will apply high throughput methods to accelerate the discovery of such materials. Mechanistic studies will be used to determine the reaction pathways, and champion materials will be incorporated into prototypes that mimic full scale devices. Project impact analyses and life cycle assessments of our prototype technology will be applied to determine the environmental and economic impacts of implementing the proposed new technology.