Study of Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide
Karan Malik (Prof. Anil Kumar)
12th July 2017, Wednesday, 04:00‐04:30 pm (25+5 mins), ChE Seminar hall
Over the past half century, ever increasing energy demand has led to an exponential increase in fossil fuel consumption, which has led to the profound increase in the anthropogenic emissions of atmospheric carbon dioxide leading to an escalation of the carbon dioxide levels in earth’s atmosphere. Use of renewable energy is the solution but their intermittent nature is one of the biggest hurdles. In electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (ERC) we utilize CO2 as a raw material along with water to generate value added products/fuel by utilizing renewable energy such as solar energy. Hence, ERC may offer a unique advantage in solving the challenges of the modern world in meeting its energy demand by providing an efficient way of storing the renewable energy at the same time mitigating the atmospheric CO2 levels. However, high overpotential due to slow kinetics, low conversion, and wide range of products are the challenges in ERC. In this study, different forms of copper were synthesised and investigated for the continuous conversion of CO2 in a specifically designed and fabricated electrochemical reactor. Copper was chosen as the base material for its unique capability to convert CO2 to hydrocarbons. Study indicates graphene supported copper shows 35% faradic efficiency towards CO at low overpotentials.