Exploring Electrochemical Flow-Cell Designs and Parameters for CO2 Reduction to Formate under Industrially Relevant Conditions

Potassium formate can be considered an environmentally friendly and low-corrosion deicing material. Herein we explore and develop electrochemical solutions for on-site formate production from CO under ambient conditions. We screen a variety of cathode catalysts in both H-type and gas-diffusion flow-type cells, and explore several possible flow-cell device configurations with various electrolytes and membrane candidates. We demonstrate a cell capable of industrially relevant current densities (>= 200 mA cm(-2)) while maintaining faradaic efficiency of 95% for formate and electrochemical energy efficiency >20%, and compare our results to the state-of-the-art system in the literature.

Automated summary

This paper explores the electrochemical production of formate from CO under ambient conditions, achieving high current densities and efficient formate production through cathode catalyst screening and flow-cell device configuration exploration, and compares the results with the state-of-the-art system.