Electrochemical CO2 reduction: Electrocatalyst, reaction mechanism, and process engineering

Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission from fossil fuel utilization poses a potential thread to global climate. Recent development in electrochemical CO2 reduction opens up new possibilities of utilization of CO2 as a carbon feedstock for fuel generation and commodity chemicals. This article reviewed progress related to electrochemical CO2 reduction in the past few years, with a focus on new development of CO2 reduction electrocatalysts, mechanistic understanding of CO2 electro-reduction reaction, and process engineering efforts in CO2 electrolyzers. Additionally, critical issues associated with current state-of-art systems were identified and potential directions for future studies were discussed. The article aims at providing the community a timely review of recent technical achievements as well as inspiring new ideas towards a practical CO2 electrolysis technology. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.