The effect of variable operating parameters for hydrocarbon fuel formation from CO2 by molten salts electrolysis

Al-Juboori, Ossama; Sher, Farooq; Hazafa, Abu; Khan, Muhammad Kashif; Chen, George Z.

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. The emission of CO2 has been increasing day by day by growing world population, which resulted in the atmospheric and environmental destruction. Conventionally different strategies, including nuclear power and geothermal energy have been adopted to convert atmospheric CO2 to hydrocarbon fuels. However, these methods are very complicated due to large amount of radioactive waste from the reprocessing plant. The present study investigated the effect of various parameters like temperature (200-500°C), applied voltage (1.5-3.0V), and feed gas (CO2/H2O) composition of 1, 9.2, and 15.6 in hydrocarbon fuel formation in molten carbonate (Li2CO3-Na2CO3-K2CO3; 43.5:31.5:25mol%) and hydroxide (LiOH-NaOH; 27:73 and KOH-NaOH; 50:50mol%) salts. The GC results reported that CH4 was the predominant hydrocarbon product with a lower CO2/H2O ratio (9.2) at 275°C under 3V in molten hydroxide (LiOH-NaOH). The results also showed that by increasing electrolysis temperature from 425 to 500°C, the number of carbon atoms in hydrocarbon species rose to 7 (C7H16) with a production rate of 1.5μmol/h cm2 at CO2/H2O ratio of 9.2. Moreover, the electrolysis to produce hydrocarbons in molten carbonates was more feasible at 1.5V than 2V due to the prospective carbon formation. While in molten hydroxide, the CH4 production rate (0.80-20.40μmol/h cm2) increased by increasing the applied voltage from 2.0-3.0V despite the reduced current efficiencies (2.30 to 0.05%). The maximum current efficiency (99.5%) was achieved for H2 as a by-product in molten hydroxide (LiOH-NaOH; 27:73mol%) at 275°C, under 2V and CO2/H2O ratio of 1. Resultantly, the practice of molten salts could be a promising and encouraging technology for further fundamental investigation for hydrocarbon fuel formation due to its fast-electrolytic conversion rate and no utilization of catalyst.

Citation

Al-Juboori, O., Sher, F., Hazafa, A., Khan, M. K., & Chen, G. Z. (2020). The effect of variable operating parameters for hydrocarbon fuel formation from CO2 by molten salts electrolysis. Journal of Co2 Utilization, 40, Article 101193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2020.101193

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 11, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 10, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 11, 2021
• Journal: Journal of CO2 Utilization
• Electronic ISSN: 2212-9820
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Article Number: 101193
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2020.101193
• Keywords: Renewable energy, Molten salt electrolysis, Applied voltage, CO2/H2O, Hydrocarbon fuels, Electrochemical conversion, Carbon dioxide capture
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4624805
• Publisher URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212982020303772?via%3Dihub
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: The effect of variable operating parameters for hydrocarbon fuel formation from CO2 by molten salts electrolysis; Journal Title: Journal of CO2 Utilization; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2020.101193; Content Type: article; Copyright: © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.