DataVXACS Energy LettersPaper
journal article·2023-07-14Open access

Energy-Efficient Ethanol Concentration Method for Scalable CO2 Electrolysis

Magda H. Barecka, Pritika DS Dameni, Marsha Zakir Muhamad, Joel W. Ager, Alexei A. Lapkin

ACS Energy Letters· Volume 8· Issue 7
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Source abstract

Abstract

Electrosynthesis of ethanol from carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is a promising route to generate a sustainable fuel and a convenient feedstock for chemical manufacturing. While significant progress has been achieved in boosting the selectivity of CO 2 to ethanol, the subsequent ethanol separation remains a bottleneck, which prevents leveraging the laboratory results into large-scale systems. Here we report vacuum membrane distillation as a method that efficiently concentrates dilute ethanol streams produced by CO 2 electrolysis (CO 2 R), yielding up to ∼40 wt% ethanol in pure water. In our design considerations, we include previously underappreciated thermodynamic properties of the catholyte (salting-out effect) and propose strategies allowing a more precise estimation of energy inputs to the separation processes. Our work provides the basis for the detailed design of complex systems which integrate flow reactors and liquid separations and supports scaling of the systems previously considered not optimized for industrial use.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: CO2 Reduction Techniques and Catalysts · Electrocatalysts for Energy Conversion · Fuel Cells and Related Materials

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States

Cambridge Centre for Advanced Research and Education in Singapore, CARES Ltd., 1 CREATE Way, CREATE Tower #05-05, 138602 Singapore

Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 50 Nanyang Avenue, 639798 Singapore

Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore (BEARS), Ltd., 1 CREATE Way, 138602 Singapore

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, United States

Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States

Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, U.K.

Funding

National Research Foundation Singapore

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