Ionic Liquid Catalyst Can Be Transformed From Emissions Into Fuel

The production of biofuels (left) than the fuel is produced through artificial synthesis. Crops take CO2, water and sunlight to create biomass, which is then transferred to the refinery fuel. By way of artificial photosynthesis, solar or wind turbine collects energy that the power of the electrolyzer, which is converted to CO 2 synthesis gas, which is derived from the refinery to make fuel.

University of Illinois Chemical and Biological Engineering Professor Paul Kenis and his research group teamed with scientists from materials of carbon dioxide, a startup company to produce a catalyst that improves artificial photosynthesis. Society, academia Research Park, was founded by former chemical engineering professor Richard Masel. The team reported their findings in the journal Science.

Artificial photosynthesis is the process of converting carbon dioxide gas into useful chemicals based on carbon compounds including fuel or other petroleum products in general, as an alternative to the removal of biomass.

In plants, photosynthesis uses solar energy to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into sugars and other hydrocarbons. Biofuels are refined sugar from plants like corn. However, artificial photosynthesis, an electrochemical cell uses the energy of wind or solar energy to convert CO2 from fuels such as coal only formic acid or methanol, which are even more to make ethanol and other fuels.

"The main advantage is that there is no competition with food supply," said Masel, co-principal investigator of the paper and chief executive of carbon materials ", and is much cheaper electricity than marine biomass is in a refinery. "

However, one major obstacle remained artificial photosynthesis vault into the mainstream: The first step in making fuel, converting carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide, is too high energy consumption. Power required to drive as the first reaction more energy is used to produce fuel that can be stored in the fuel.

The Illinois group used a new approach involving an ionic liquid to catalyze the reaction, which significantly reduces the energy needed to drive the process. The ionic liquids to stabilize the intermediate in the reaction so that less energy is needed to complete the conversion.

The researchers used an electrochemical cell to flow into the reactor, which separates the gas supply of oxygen to produce CO 2 and a liquid electrolyte, a catalyst for the gas diffusion electrode. The cell design allowed the researchers to fine-tune the composition of the electrolyte to improve the flow of reaction kinetics, including the addition of ionic liquids as a catalyst for cooperation.

"It will reduce the overpotential for CO2 reduction tremendous," said Kenis, who is also a professor of mechanical science and technology related to the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. "As a result, a much lower potential is applied. Applying for a much lower potential to consume less energy to drive the process."

Next, the researchers hope to solve the flow problem. To be useful technology for commercial applications, they need to accelerate and maximize the reaction conversion.

"It takes more work, but this research gives us a big step toward reducing our dependence on fossil fuels while reducing CO2 emissions linked to climate change events," said Kenis.

Students Brian Rosen, Michael Thorson, Zhu Wei, and Devin Whipple, and a postdoctoral researcher Amin Salehi-Khojin were co-authors of the paper. U.S. Department of Energy supported this work.

Editor's note: To contact Paul Kenis, call 217-265-0523, e-mail kenis@illinois.edu.