Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021 - 40

Power & Energy
Turning Carbon Dioxide into Liquid Fuel
A new electrocatalyst efficiently converts carbon dioxide into ethanol.
Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Illinois

C

atalysts speed up chemical reactions
and form the backbone of many
industrial processes; for example, they are
essential in transforming heavy oil into
gasoline or jet fuel. Researchers have discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts
carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into
ethanol with very high energy efficiency,
high selectivity for the desired final product, and low cost.
Ethanol is a particularly desirable commodity because it is an ingredient in near-

ly all U.S. gasoline and is widely used as an
intermediate product in the chemical,
pharmaceutical, and cosmetics industries.
The process resulting from the catalyst
would electrochemically convert the CO2
emitted from industrial processes, such as
fossil fuel power plants or alcohol fermentation plants, into valuable commodities
at reasonable cost.
The catalyst consists of atomically dispersed copper on a carbon-powder support. By an electrochemical reaction, this

Artistic rendering of the electrocatalytic process for conversion of carbon dioxide and water into
ethanol. (Image: Argonne National Laboratory)

catalyst breaks down CO2 and water molecules and selectively reassembles the
broken molecules into ethanol under an
external electric field. The electrocatalytic selectivity, or " Faradaic efficiency, " of
the process is over 90 percent. The catalyst also operates stably over extended
operation at low voltage. The mechanism
should also provide a foundation for
development of highly efficient electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide conversion to
a vast array of value-added chemicals.
Because CO2 is a stable molecule,
transforming it into a different molecule
is normally energy-intensive and costly.
But the electrochemical process of CO2to-ethanol conversion using the catalyst
could be coupled to the electric grid to
take advantage of the low-cost electricity
available from renewable sources like
solar and wind during off-peak hours.
Because the process runs at low temperature and pressure, it can start and stop
rapidly in response to the intermittent
supply of the renewable electricity.
The team prepared several new catalysts using the approach and found that
they are all highly efficient in converting
CO2 to other hydrocarbons.
For more information, contact Lina
Chong at chonglina@anl.gov; 630-252-3069.

Lightweight Green Supercapacitors Could Quickly
Charge Devices
The energy storage device can store a charge up to 900 times greater than state-of-the-art
supercapacitors.
Texas A&M University, College Station

R

esearchers have created a flexible,
lightweight, cost-effective plant-based
energy storage device that in the near
future could charge devices - even electric cars - within a few minutes.
Energy storage devices are generally in
the form of either batteries or supercapacitors. Although both types of devices
can deliver electrical currents when
required, they have some fundamental

differences. While batteries can store
large amounts of charge per unit volume, supercapacitors are much more
efficient at generating a large quantity of
electric current within a short duration.
This burst of electricity helps supercapacitors quickly charge devices, unlike batteries that can take much longer.
Supercapacitors have an internal
architecture that is more in line with

40

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Cov

ToC

basic capacitors. Both these devices store
charge on metal plates or electrodes;
however, unlike basic capacitors, supercapacitors can be made in different
sizes, shapes, and designs, depending on
the intended application. Furthermore,
supercapacitor electrodes can also be
built with different materials.
The researchers used manganese dioxide nanoparticles for designing one of the
Tech Briefs, April 2021


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Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021

Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021 - Intro
Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021 - Sponsor
Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021 - Cov1
Tech Briefs Magazine - April 2021 - Cov2
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