Renewable electricity-powered carbon dioxide conversion to ethanol for storage and transportation

Cost-effective electrochemical reduction of CO2 (ECO2R) in the atmosphere, is the holy grail of green chemistry. Using only water and electricity as other inputs, ECO2R has been demonstrated to produce ethanol with pure oxygen as a co-product. Ethanol is a versatile fuel that can be used in fuel cells, reformed to make hydrogen, or burned in an internal combustion engine. Ethanol produced from air-captured CO2 and renewable electricity would be carbon neutral, leading to no net new CO2 emissions when used. The proposed effort aims to move ECO2R from the research lab to commercial viability by integrating a novel cathode layer formulation, containing CO2-reducing catalysts and polymer electrolyte, into existing PEM electrolyzer architecture, which has benefited from decades of advances in performance. The culmination of the thirty-month project will be a ECO2R pilot reactor capable of producing over one hundred grams-per-day of ethanol. Moving this technology to commercial readiness provides a new source of domestic fuel production. Development of a pathway to low cost renewable fuel leads to new economic opportunities and job growth.