A 3D Printed Membrane Reactor System for Electrochemical CO2 Conversion

Abstract

Nowadays, CO2 electroreduction is gaining special interest as achieving net zero CO2 emissions is not going to be enough to avoid or mitigate the negative effects of climate change. However, the cost of CO2 electroreduction is still very high because of the low efficiency of conversion (around 20%). Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the reaction conditions. Thus, a miniaturized novel membrane reactor was designed and manufactured in this study, with a shorter distance between the electrodes and a reduced volume, compared with CNC-manufactured reactors, using novel stereolithography-based 3D printing. The reduced distance between the two electrodes reduced the electrical resistance and therefore lowered the overpotential necessary to trigger the reaction from −1.6 V to −1.2 V, increasing the efficiency. In addition, the reduction in the volume of the reactor increased the catalyst area/volume ratio, which also boosted the concentration of the products (from FE 18% to FE 21%), allowing their better identification. Furthermore, the smaller volume and reduced complexity of the reactor also improved the testing capacity and decreased the cost of experimentation. The novel miniaturized reactor can help researchers to perform more experiments in a cost/time-effective way, facilitating the optimization of the reaction conditions.