Cover Picture: Energy Savings in the Conversion of CO2 to Fuels using an Electrolytic Device (Energy Technol. 6/2014). Issue 6 (June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bevilacqua, Manuela; Filippi, Jonathan; Lavacchi, Alessandro; Marchionni, Andrea; Miller, Hamish A.; Oberhauser, Werner; Vesselli, Erik; Vizza, Francesco
• Is Part Of: Energy technology. Volume 2:Issue 6(2014:Jun.)
• Page Start: 509
• Page End: 509
• Publication Date: 2014-06
• Subjects: Energy development -- Periodicals; Power resources -- Periodicals; 333.79
• DOI: 10.1002/ente.201490011
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2194-4288

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="graphical" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p> <bold>CO<sub>2</sub> Valuation to Fuels and Chemicals:</bold> A key challenge for the valorization of carbon dioxide to fuels and chemicals is represented by the design and the realization of practical electrolyzers, capable of converting CO<sub>2</sub> to useful products with a reduced energy consumption and high material stability. The cover image highlights the different working conditions of a traditional—"water‐based"—CO<sub>2</sub> electrolyzer and the novel depolarized‐anode alkaline membrane CO<sub>2</sub> electrolyzer (DAAM–CE). The Communication delivered by Manuela Bevilacqua and Francesco Vizza of the Institute of Organometallic Chemistry of the Italian National Research Council (ICCOM‐CNR, Florence) and coworkers is presented on <ext-link ext-link-type="doi" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">page 522</ext-link> and it demonstrates the great potential of the DAAM–CE device. The key point of this device is the exploitation of the anodic alcohol oxidation instead of water electrolysis to oxygen; in other words, the DAAM–CE device combines the cathodic transformation of CO<sub>2</sub> into useful fuels (CH<sub>4</sub>, C2H<sub>4</sub>, and HCOO<sup>−</sup>) with the anodic oxidation of ethanol to acetate. At the same time, the presence of ethanol guarantees a working cell potential much lower than existing architectures, leading to a net reduction in energy consumption from 130 kWh to 77 kWh (per kg of hydrocarbon products) with respect to a traditional device. It is noteworthy that the materials in these devices (e.g., membranes and electrocatalysts) show long‐term stability under these conditions.<boxed-text content-type="graphic" position="anchor" orientation="portrait"><graphic position="anchor" mimetype="image" xlink:href="ark:/27927/pghh50mps0" orientation="portrait" xlink:type="simple" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" /></boxed-text></p> </abstract>