Viable Electrochemical System for Sustainable Fuel and Chemical Production

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More than 80 per-cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada is energy-related. Development is most needed to enable sustainable energy sources, as well as utilize CO2 in the interim. This research program targets both of these areas; it enables a unique research environment within which to address critical applied and fundamental challenges in renewably production of fuels and chemical feedstocks from carbon dioxide and biomass wastes. Excess green electricity in Canada, e.g. hydroelectricity, during periods of high generation and low demand presents the opportunity for energy storage methods. Electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) holds promise for electricity-conversion-into-fuels and CO2 mitigation, enabling thereby to address the issues of energy crisis and global warming. The electrochemical system includes an electron-donor side called cathode which reduces CO2 via the CO2RR, and an electron-acceptor side called anode in which the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the most convenient reaction. The OER, however, requires a very high applied potential and produces oxygen which is not a valuable feedstock. The low product selectivity in the cathode and huge potential required in the anode significantly decrease the energy conversion efficiency of the CO2RR system. Developing active electrocatalysts is thus paramount to improve the electrocatalytic performance. Moreover, significant effort is needed to decrease the applied potential in the anode side. This program seeks to develop nanomaterials and a novel electrochemical system to improve the energy efficiency in CO2RR systems, also to provide a green route for biomass valorization. It will replace the OER with efficient biomass waste oxidation reaction (BWOR) to decrease the cell potential and produce more valuable chemicals than oxygen. This technology will convert CO2 into hydrocarbons such as ethanol and propanol, and upgrade low quality biomass wastes such as black liquor and lignin to value-added chemicals. These processes, today, rely on fossil fuel sources with significant carbon footprint and negative environmental impacts. This multidisciplinary program will develop accurate molecular-level models based on the density functional theory (DFT) computations that with in-situ spectroscopic measurements such as Raman enhance the understanding of the catalytic reactions. It will contribute thereby to enabling rational design of targeted electrocatalytic nanomaterials. In addition, it will employ machine learning (ML) to accelerate the discovery of materials with superior catalytic activity and selectivity. Through this program, a new commercially viable electrochemical system with optimized components and reaction conditions will be developed to accommodate both CO2RR and BWOR at a low applied potential. This technology will be a step toward practical realization of CO2RR and biomass waste upgrading and will accelerate our transition to a sustainable environment and economy.