Operation of a Pressurized System for Continuous Reduction of CO₂

A Ag-based pressurized electrochemical system equipped for continuous reduction of CO2 is presented. At elevated pressures the quantity of CO which can be generated is 5 times that observed at ambient pressure with faradaic efficiencies as high as 92% observed at 350 mA cm-2. For operation at 225 mA cm-2 and 60 degrees C the cell voltage at 18.5 atm was 0.4 V below that observed at ambient pressure. Increasing the temperature further to 90 degrees C led to a cell voltage below 3 V (18.5 atm and 90 degrees C), which equates to an electrical efficiency of 50%.