SEMINAR

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Electrochemical CO2 Reduction as a Path towards a Carbon Neutral Chemical Industry

Paul J.A. Kenis, Ph.D

Elio E. Tarika Endowed Chair, Professor of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign

Abstract

The chemical industry today relies on fossil fuels as its major feedstock and applies a range of energy-intense thermal and/or catalytic processes to convert this feed into different bulk chemicals. Many of these processes are responsible for a sizeable fraction of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions that are contributing to global warming and associated issues such as climate change, rising sea levels, and more erratic weather patterns. The use of CO2 as the feedstock for the production of bulk chemicals such as CO, ethylene, and ethanol via electrochemical CO2 reduction, has the potential to reform the chemical industry to be close to carbon neutral. Not only does this approach utilize some of the CO2 that otherwise would be emitted in the atmosphere, it also avoids the sizeable CO2 emissions associated with many of the aforementioned energy demanding processes that use fossil fuels as the feed. This presentation will highlight some of our recent efforts in catalyst, electrode, and electrolyzer design and characterization for the electrochemical conversion of CO2 into value- added chemicals. The presentation also will feature techno-economic feasibility and in life-cycle analyses that indicate where the remaining hurdles are on a path to an economic carbon neutral chemical industry. Our efforts, often with collaborators, have led to multiple promising catalysts, electrodes, reactor designs, and processes. This includes a co- electrolysis approach that involves reduction of CO2 on the cathode paired with oxidation of glycerol (a waste product of biofuel production) at the anode as a way to drastically reduce the overall energy requirement of the process.

Biography

Paul J.A. Kenis is the Elio E. Tarika endowed Chair and a Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He is also an investigator of the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, a world premier institute between Kyushu University in Japan and UIUC. Over the last decade, he focusses on the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to valuable chemical intermediates and fuels: developing suitable catalysts, electrodes, and electrolyzers, determining suitable operation conditions, and performing techno-economic analysis as a guide towards more energy efficient systems. Kenis has authored over 200 peer-reviewed publications and 14 patents. He has been recognized with a 3M young faculty award, a NSF CAREER award, a Xerox award, and best paper awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Society for Experimental Biology & Medicine. In 2019 he was named a Fellow by the Electrochemical Society. He is a coauthor of reports on the prospects of CO2 utilization at scale issued by the National Academies as well as the global Mission Innovation consortium.