(Invited) Successes and Bottlenecks in Scaling CO2 and CO Electrolysis for Commercial Demonstration

The electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide allows for the simultaneous production of value-added chemical feedstocks with greenhouse gas emission mitigation. Scalable CO2/CO reduction requires electrolyzers that operate with high current densities, efficiencies, durabilities, and product selectivities for carbon-containing products of high market value or size (e.g. carbon monoxide (syngas), formic acid, methane, ethylene, ethanol, and 1-propanol), with the potential for some of the resulting products to be industrially upcycled to higher-order hydrocarbons. In this talk, an overview of Shell's recent efforts in derisking these electrochemical processes are presented, as well as a discussion of persistent bottlenecks that must be overcome for commercially viable demonstrations to be implemented in the near future.