Novel polymer-electrolyte membrane development for carbon dioxide conversion to solar fuel

Sustainable fuels and chemicals production is necessary for the future of the global economy. Converting waste CO2 into fuel using sunlight is a promising process to close the carbon cycle as well as to store solar energy. An electrochemical process to convert CO2 into solar chemicals and fuels has been developed to enable this conversion. Key to this process is a new polymer- electrolyte design that enables CO2 electroreduction in existing polymer-electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer hardware. PEM electrolyzers are ideal for coupling to intermittent solar power, because they can ramp up and down quickly without performance degradation. Use of this industrially proven electrochemical reactor design to perform this CO2 conversion provides a clear pathway to manufacturability and scalability. Through the Phase I and II awards, the aim is to improve membrane formulation to achieve performance efficiency and selectivity needed to compete with existing chemical and fuels production processes at the large scale and there has been success in taking the scale of new polymer-electrolyte synthesis beyond what can be done in an academic laboratory. In Phase IIA, the goal is to further lower the cost of large-scale material production and to fabricate an industrial-scale polymer-electrolyte membrane with a national laboratory using a roll-to-roll technique. The cost will be much lower than the current commercial proton exchange membrane baseline. Utilizing low-cost and abundant solar energy to convert CO2 to fuel and value-added chemicals could positively impact the global carbon balance, reduce air pollution, and create new jobs in regions with few opportunities by distributing production of these materials. The proposed work will therefore have an outsized impact on enabling the scale-up of solar fuels production from CO2.