Research Overview
Graduate student and Resnick Fellow, Alex Welch, is a member of a research team that has recently performed calculations comparing their system for CO2 capture and conversion to existing systems and industrial processes. The results of this study have been summarized in the recent publication, "Bicarbonate or Carbonate Processes for Coupling Carbon Dioxide Capture and Electrochemical Conversion", which describes favorable characteristics of processes using a bicarbonate or carbonate solution as the carbon-bearing feedstock.
Scientific Achievement
We outlined the energy requirements for CO2 capture and conversion systems that use bicarbonate or carbonate solutions as the carbon bearing feedstock
Significance and Impact
We noted increases in the energy efficiency of these CO2 capture and conversion systems
Technical Details
To make syngas the system we propose requires 0.7 MJ/mol syngas. While to synthesize syngas from coal or natural gas requires 1.5-3.7 MJ/mol syngas and 0.8 MJ/mol syngas respectively; and these values do not include the energy required to extract the coal or natural gas.
Welch, Alex J. and Dunn, Emily and Duchene, Joseph S. and Atwater, Harry A. (2020) Bicarbonate or Carbonate Processes for Coupling Carbon Dioxide Capture and Electrochemical Conversion. ACS Energy Letters, 5, pp. 940-945. https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsenergylett.0c00234
Contact: Harry A. Atwater