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Credit: University of Illinois/Claire Benjamin
For decades, researchers have been working toward mitigating excess atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO
2) emissions. One promising approach captures atmospheric CO
2 and then, through CO
2 electrolysis, converts it into value-added chemicals and intermediates--like ethanol, ethylene, and other useful chemicals. While significant research has been devoted to improving the rate and selectivity of CO
2 electrolysis, reducing the energy consumption of this high-power process has been underexplored.
In
ACS Energy Letters, researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign report a new opportunity to use magnetism to reduce the energy required for CO
2 electrolysis by up to 60% in a flow electrolyzer.