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Co-electrolysis of CO2 and glycerol as a pathway to carbon chemicals with improved technoeconomics due to low electricity consumption

Author

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  • Sumit Verma

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    Kyushu University)

  • Shawn Lu

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

  • Paul J. A. Kenis

    (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    Kyushu University)

Abstract

The renewable electricity-driven electroreduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) offers an alternative pathway to producing carbon chemicals that are traditionally manufactured using fossil fuels. Typical CO2 electroreduction approaches couple cathodic CO2 reduction with the anodic oxygen evolution reaction (OER), resulting in approximately 90% of the electricity input being consumed by the OER. Here, we explore alternatives to the OER and show that the anodic electro-oxidation of glycerol (a byproduct of industrial biodiesel and soap production) can lower electricity consumption by up to 53%. This reduces the process’s operating costs and carbon footprint, thus opening avenues for a carbon-neutral cradle-to-gate process even when driven by grid electricity (~13% renewables today), as well as economical production of the 12-electron products ethylene and ethanol. This study may thus serve as a framework for the design of CO2 electroreduction processes with low electricity requirements, enhancing their CO2 utilization potential and economic viability.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumit Verma & Shawn Lu & Paul J. A. Kenis, 2019. "Co-electrolysis of CO2 and glycerol as a pathway to carbon chemicals with improved technoeconomics due to low electricity consumption," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 4(6), pages 466-474, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:4:y:2019:i:6:d:10.1038_s41560-019-0374-6
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-019-0374-6
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    Cited by:

    1. Ke Xie & Adnan Ozden & Rui Kai Miao & Yuhang Li & David Sinton & Edward H. Sargent, 2022. "Eliminating the need for anodic gas separation in CO2 electroreduction systems via liquid-to-liquid anodic upgrading," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Wan Ru Leow & Simon Völker & Raoul Meys & Jianan Erick Huang & Shaffiq A. Jaffer & André Bardow & Edward H. Sargent, 2023. "Electrified hydrocarbon-to-oxygenates coupled to hydrogen evolution for efficient greenhouse gas mitigation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Zhenhua Li & Yifan Yan & Si-Min Xu & Hua Zhou & Ming Xu & Lina Ma & Mingfei Shao & Xianggui Kong & Bin Wang & Lirong Zheng & Haohong Duan, 2022. "Alcohols electrooxidation coupled with H2 production at high current densities promoted by a cooperative catalyst," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-14, December.
    4. Wei Liu & Pengbo Zhai & Aowen Li & Bo Wei & Kunpeng Si & Yi Wei & Xingguo Wang & Guangda Zhu & Qian Chen & Xiaokang Gu & Ruifeng Zhang & Wu Zhou & Yongji Gong, 2022. "Electrochemical CO2 reduction to ethylene by ultrathin CuO nanoplate arrays," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Yang Liu & Huishan Shang & Bing Zhang & Dongpeng Yan & Xu Xiang, 2024. "Surface fluorination of BiVO4 for the photoelectrochemical oxidation of glycerol to formic acid," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. Aby Cheruvathoor Poulose & Miroslav Medveď & Vasudeva Rao Bakuru & Akashdeep Sharma & Deepika Singh & Suresh Babu Kalidindi & Hugo Bares & Michal Otyepka & Kolleboyina Jayaramulu & Aristides Bakandrit, 2023. "Acidic graphene organocatalyst for the superior transformation of wastes into high-added-value chemicals," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    7. Jun Qi & Yadong Du & Qi Yang & Na Jiang & Jiachun Li & Yi Ma & Yangjun Ma & Xin Zhao & Jieshan Qiu, 2023. "Energy-saving and product-oriented hydrogen peroxide electrosynthesis enabled by electrochemistry pairing and product engineering," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    8. Jiexin Zhu & Jiantao Li & Ruihu Lu & Ruohan Yu & Shiyong Zhao & Chengbo Li & Lei Lv & Lixue Xia & Xingbao Chen & Wenwei Cai & Jiashen Meng & Wei Zhang & Xuelei Pan & Xufeng Hong & Yuhang Dai & Yu Mao , 2023. "Surface passivation for highly active, selective, stable, and scalable CO2 electroreduction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    9. Xiaoyi Jiang & Le Ke & Kai Zhao & Xiaoyu Yan & Hongbo Wang & Xiaojuan Cao & Yuchen Liu & Lingjiao Li & Yifei Sun & Zhiping Wang & Dai Dang & Ning Yan, 2024. "Integrating hydrogen utilization in CO2 electrolysis with reduced energy loss," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    10. Lowy, Daniel A. & Melendez, Jesus R. & Mátyás, Bence, 2024. "Electroreduction of carbon dioxide to liquid fuels: A low-cost, sustainable technology," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    11. Yuyang Pan & Huiyan Zhang & Bowen Zhang & Feng Gong & Jianyong Feng & Huiting Huang & Srinivas Vanka & Ronglei Fan & Qi Cao & Mingrong Shen & Zhaosheng Li & Zhigang Zou & Rui Xiao & Sheng Chu, 2023. "Renewable formate from sunlight, biomass and carbon dioxide in a photoelectrochemical cell," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    12. Liang Huang & Ge Gao & Chaobo Yang & Xiao-Yan Li & Rui Kai Miao & Yanrong Xue & Ke Xie & Pengfei Ou & Cafer T. Yavuz & Yu Han & Gaetano Magnotti & David Sinton & Edward H. Sargent & Xu Lu, 2023. "Pressure dependence in aqueous-based electrochemical CO2 reduction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    13. Fenghui Ye & Shishi Zhang & Qingqing Cheng & Yongde Long & Dong Liu & Rajib Paul & Yunming Fang & Yaqiong Su & Liangti Qu & Liming Dai & Chuangang Hu, 2023. "The role of oxygen-vacancy in bifunctional indium oxyhydroxide catalysts for electrochemical coupling of biomass valorization with CO2 conversion," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-14, December.
    14. Hua Zhou & Yue Ren & Bingxin Yao & Zhenhua Li & Ming Xu & Lina Ma & Xianggui Kong & Lirong Zheng & Mingfei Shao & Haohong Duan, 2023. "Scalable electrosynthesis of commodity chemicals from biomass by suppressing non-Faradaic transformations," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    15. Ruiz-López, Estela & Gandara-Loe, Jesús & Baena-Moreno, Francisco & Reina, Tomas Ramirez & Odriozola, José Antonio, 2022. "Electrocatalytic CO2 conversion to C2 products: Catalysts design, market perspectives and techno-economic aspects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    16. Jiajie Hou & Bingjun Xu & Qi Lu, 2024. "Influence of electric double layer rigidity on CO adsorption and electroreduction rate," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

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