Scale up of high performance catalysts for the electrochemical conversion of CO2 to useful products

由于世界能源需求的增加以及与之相关的化石燃料的加速使用，人为二氧化碳(CO2)排放量正在急剧增加。开发能够将二氧化碳转化为有用产品的技术，而不是直接将其排放到大气中，是解决这一关键问题的第一步。可以实现这一目标的一项非常有前途的技术是在高温固体氧化物电解槽中将二氧化碳转化为CO和O2(二氧化碳分解)或将CO2+H2O转化为合成气(CO+H2)，使用非二氧化碳密集型电力和热源(如风能、太阳能等)。卡尔加里大学的BISS小组最近开发了几种高度活性和稳定的材料(混合离子和电子导电金属氧化物)，专门用于在固体氧化物电解槽(SOEC)中催化这些反应，引起了世界各地工业和研究小组的极大兴趣，特别是由于这些材料具有高二氧化碳转化率、界面稳定性和一般耐用性。然而，到目前为止，用这些材料建造的电池还相当小；这是大学实验室生产的典型的研究规模设备。因此，I2I项目的目标是扩大由这些催化材料组成的SOEC电池的规模，然后展示它们在典型高操作温度下的二氧化碳转化能力，同时还展示在实际二氧化碳和二氧化碳/蒸汽气体进料情况下的概念验证规模的SOEC电解槽。在阴极从二氧化碳中高效地生产浓缩的CO将为重要的原料化学品的供应创造一条新的途径，而合成气可以被储存起来供以后用作燃料。此外，在目前使用昂贵的低温空气分离方法的石化行业中，在阳极生产纯氧具有显著的好处。许多公司对该项目中正在扩大的二氧化碳和二氧化碳/水转化系统非常感兴趣，成功的项目成果将大大加快这项技术的商业化进程。

Anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are increasing dramatically as a direct result of increased world energy demand and the associated accelerating use of fossil fuels. Developing technologies that can convert CO2 to useful products, rather than directly releasing it to the atmosphere, is a first step in dealing with this critical problem. One very promising technology that can achieve this goal is the conversion of CO2 to CO and O2 ('CO2 splitting') or CO2+H2O to syngas (CO+H2) in a high temperature solid oxide electrolysis cell, operating on non-CO2 intensive electricity and heat sources (e.g., wind, solar, etc.). The Birss Group at the University of Calgary has recently developed several highly active and stable materials (mixed ion and electron conducting metal oxides) specifically to catalyze these reactions in Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOECs), with significant interest being garnered from both industry and research groups world-wide, particularly due to the high rates of CO2 conversion, interfacial stability and general durability of these materials. However, to date, the cells constructed of these materials have been quite small; typical of research-scale devices produced in university laboratories. Therefore, the goal of this I2I project is to scale-up the SOEC cells composed of these catalytic materials, and then demonstrate their CO2 conversion capabilities at typical high operating temperatures, while also demonstrating the proof-of-concept scale SOEC-based electrolyzers when subjected to realistic CO2 and CO2/steam gas feeds. The high efficiency production of concentrated CO from CO2 at the cathode will create a new path for the supply of important feedstock chemicals, while syngas can be stored for later use as a fuel. Furthermore, the production of pure oxygen at the anode has significant benefits in the petrochemical industry, which currently uses costly cryogenic air separation methods. A number of companies are very interested in the CO2 and CO2/H2O conversion system being scaled up in this project and a successful project outcome will significantly accelerate the commercialization of this technology.