Abstract
This work explores technical challenges and potential methodologies for
understanding electrochemical Reactive CO2 Capture (RCC) mechanisms. RCC
offers potential energy cost advantages by directly converting captured
CO 2 into fuels and chemicals, unlike traditional carbon
capture and utilization (CCU) processes that require sequential capture,
concentration, and compression. However, direct conversion of captured
CO 2 introduces complexity due to additional equilibrium
buffer reactions, making it challenging to identify active species for
reduction in electrochemical studies. This work discusses methods to
integrate transport, thermodynamics, and kinetics concepts to identify
active carbon sources in RCC. Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium (VLE) and
transport models are validated against experimental results obtained in
a gastight rotating cylinder electrode reactor and are shown as useful
tools for studying RCC in heterogeneous electrocatalysts across
different capture agents, solvents, and temperatures. This work
establishes an experimental framework for advancing research in
electrochemical RCC.