Bipolar membrane electrolyzers enable high single-pass CO2 electroreduction to multicarbon products

In alkaline and neutral MEA CO2 electrolyzers, CO2 rapidly converts to (bi)carbonate, imposing a significant energy penalty arising from separating CO2 from the anode gas outlets. Here we report a CO2 electrolyzer uses a bipolar membrane (BPM) to convert (bi)carbonate back to CO2, preventing crossover; and that surpasses the single-pass utilization (SPU) limit (25% for multi-carbon products, C2+) suffered by previous neutral-media electrolyzers. We employ a stationary unbuffered catholyte layer between BPM and cathode to promote C2+ products while ensuring that (bi)carbonate is converted back, in situ, to CO2 near the cathode. We develop a model that enables the design of the catholyte layer, finding that limiting the diffusion path length of reverted CO2 to similar to 10 mu m balances the CO2 diffusion flux with the regeneration rate. We report a single-pass CO2 utilization of 78%, which lowers the energy associated with downstream separation of CO2 by 10x compared with past systems.

Automated summary

In this study, a CO2 electrolyzer using bipolar membrane (BPM) technology is reported, which converts CO2 from (bi)carbonate back to CO2, preventing crossover and surpassing the single-pass utilization limit of previous neutral-media electrolyzers. By employing a stationary unbuffered catholyte layer between BPM and cathode, C2+ product formation is promoted while ensuring the conversion of (bi)carbonate to CO2.