{"id":121930,"date":"2023-02-03T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T06:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=121930"},"modified":"2023-01-31T13:03:10","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T12:03:10","slug":"new-catalyst-design-could-make-better-use-of-captured-carbon-researchers-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/new-catalyst-design-could-make-better-use-of-captured-carbon-researchers-say\/","title":{"rendered":"New catalyst design could make better use of captured carbon, researchers say"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n
\"Post-doctoral
Post-doctoral researcher Adnan Ozden holds up a sample of the new catalyst, which improves the efficiency of reactions that convert captured CO2 into valuable products such as ethanol and ethylene (photo by Aaron Demeter)\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A new catalyst design created by researchers at the University of Toronto\u2019s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering could significantly improve the practicality of an electrochemical process that converts captured carbon dioxide\u00a0into multi-carbon molecules \u2013 some of the key building blocks of the chemical industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need alternative routes to everyday products that do not require fossil fuel inputs,\u201d says\u00a0David Sinton<\/strong>, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and\u00a0senior author on a\u00a0new paper\u00a0published in\u00a0<\/a>Nature Energy<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>

\u201cWith recent advances in carbon capture, there is an opportunity to use CO2<\/sub>\u00a0to replace core chemical feedstocks on which the modern world relies. By developing cost-effective ways to upgrade this carbon into products we already need, we can increase the economic incentive to capture, rather than emit, CO2<\/sub>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

One way to upgrade carbon involves electrochemistry \u2013 electricity used to drive forward a desired chemical reaction. The conversion is carried out in devices known as electrolyzers, where electrons combine with the reactants at the surface of a solid catalyst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team has a proven track record of successfully developing\u00a0innovative ways to improve the efficiency of electrochemical CO2<\/sub>\u00a0conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their latest published work, the researchers focused on a variant of the process known as \u201ccascade CO2\u00a0reduction.\u201d In this two-step process, CO2<\/sub>\u00a0is first dissolved in a liquid electrolyte and\u00a0then passed through an electrolyzer, where it reacts with electrons to form carbon monoxide (CO).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CO is then passed through a second electrolyzer where it is converted into two-carbon products such as ethanol, which is commonly used as fuel, and ethylene, which is a precursor to many types of plastics as well as other consumer goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is at this second step where the team found inefficiencies they believed could be overcome. The challenges were related to selectivity, which is the ability to maximize production of the target molecules by reducing the formation of undesirable side products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the key issues is the poor selectivity under low reactant availability,\u201d says post-doctoral researcher\u00a0Adnan Ozden<\/strong>, one of four lead authors on the new paper.<\/p>

\u201cThis, in turn, leads to a trade-off between the energy efficiency \u2013 meaning how efficiently we use the electrons we pump into the system \u2013 versus the carbon efficiency, which is a measure of how efficiently we use CO2<\/sub> and CO.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThere are ways to achieve high energy efficiency, and there are ways to achieve high carbon efficiency, but they are usually approached separately,\u201d says former post-doctoral researcher Jun Li<\/strong>,\u00a0another of the lead authors, who is now an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAchieving both in a single-operation mode is the key.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"In
In this schematic of the catalyst design, the large spheres represent copper nanoparticles, which are covered in a honeycomb-like mesh that represents the covalent organic framework. The blue spheres are positively charged cations and the clear ones are negatively charged anions. The coloured molecules on the surface represent the carbon monoxide reactant (CO) and the reaction product, ethylene (image courtesy of Alex Tokarev, Kate Zvorykina from Ella Maru studio)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The team investigated the reasons for this trade-off and found that it originates from excessive accumulation of the positively charged ions, known as cations, on the catalyst surface, as well as the undesirable migration of the negatively charged ions, known as anions, away from the catalyst surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To overcome this challenge, they took inspiration from the design of supercapacitors, another electrochemical system where the transport of ions is critical. They added a porous material, known as a covalent organic framework, onto the surface of the catalyst, which enabled them to control the transport of cations and anions in the local reaction environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith this modification, we obtained a highly porous, highly hydrophobic catalyst layer,\u201d says Li<\/strong>.<\/p>

\u201cIn this design, the covalent organic framework interacts with the cations to limit their diffusion to the active sites. The covalent organic framework also confines the locally produced anions due to its high hydrophobicity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Using the new catalyst design, the team built an electrolyzer that converts CO into two-carbon products with 95 per cent carbon efficiency, while also keeping energy efficiency relatively high at 40 per cent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you look at what has been achieved so far in the field, the various approaches have tended to focus either on getting really high energy efficiency, or really high carbon efficiency,\u201d says Ozden. \u201cOur new design shows that it\u2019s possible to break this trade-off.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There is still more work to be done. For example, while the prototype device maintained its performance for more than 200 hours, it will need to last even longer if it\u2019s to be used industrially. Still, the new strategy shows potential in terms of its ability to improve the value proposition of upgrading captured carbon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf this process is going to be adopted commercially, we need to be able to show that we can accomplish the conversion in a way that\u2019s scalable and cost-effective enough to make economic sense,\u201d says Sinton. \u201cI think our approach demonstrates that this is a goal within reach.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new catalyst design created by researchers at the University of Toronto\u2019s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering could significantly improve the practicality of an electrochemical process that converts captured carbon dioxide\u00a0into multi-carbon molecules \u2013 some of the key building blocks of the chemical industry. \u201cWe need alternative routes to everyday products that do not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"University of Toronto scientists found a new catalyst design that could significantly improve the practicality of an electrochemical process that converts captured carbon dioxide into multi-carbon molecules ","footnotes":""},"categories":[5571],"tags":[10744,12535,10416,10743],"supplier":[16393,370],"class_list":["post-121930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-co2-based","tag-carboncapture","tag-catalysts","tag-circulareconomy","tag-useco2","supplier-university-of-toronto-engineering","supplier-university-of-toronto-kanada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121930\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121930"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=121930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}