Sustainable Production of Fuel from Electrochemical Reduction of Carbon Dioxide

Carbon dioxide being a very stable molecule, has always sought the attention of researchers globally, and its efficient fixation is still a challenging task. Electrochemical reduction of CO₂, is one of the methods to fix this molecule, which can result in products like methanol, formic acid, methane etc. that can be efficiently used as alternative energy carriers. However, CO₂ electroreduction is not a very feasible reaction without the use of catalysts because of the high overpotential, slow reaction kinetics, and other competing reactions. Hence, use of the efficient catalyst is of key importance in this reaction, as it also determines the selectivity of products. In this present work, an electrochemical reactor is developed and fabricated for the electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into fuel. Catalysts, CuO and ZnO are synthesized and characterized for electrochemical reduction of CO₂ into methanol. The absorbed CO₂ in potassium bicarbonate solution is fed into the electrochemical reactor. It is found that the catalysts are active towards CO₂ electroreducion and highly selective for methanol production. The yield of the methanol for CuO and ZnO are found to be 8.7% and 5.4% at 2.0 V and 2.5 V, respectively.