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SUMMARY:Renewable synthetic fuels by electro- or thermo-catalysis?
DTSTART:20180301T103000
DTEND:20180301T113000
DTSTAMP:20260920T110353Z
UID:ee5b5651b81e64cb5d54f048827138dabfd735e91cf6110677f04e24
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr. Andreas Borgschulte\nLaboratory 502 Advanced Analytical Te
 chnologies\nEmpa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science & Tech
 nology\nDübendorf\, Switzerland\nChE-605 - Highlights in Energy Research 
 seminar series\nState-of-the-art production of renewable hydrocarbons may 
 be divided into three steps: light harvesting and conversion to electricit
 y (photovoltaics)\, water electrolysis\, and conversion of the hydrogen to
  hydrocarbons by catalytic reaction with CO2. Electrolysis is an electro-c
 hemical process taking place at two spatially separated electrodes. The Fa
 raday efficiency for water electrolysis is near one\; the voltage–curren
 t relation is thus sufficient to characterize the water-splitting reaction
  and defines the overall efficiency\, which reaches more than 80% in moder
 n electrolyzers. The efficiency of the subsequent step\, the catalytic rea
 ction of hydrogen with CO2 to produce hydrocarbons\, depends on thermodyna
 mic factors (Gibbs free energy) and kinetic constraints requiring elaborat
 ed temperature/pressure and additional separation and/or cycling procedure
 s. The effort of the required various technically different devices may be
  lowered\, if CO2 reduction takes place simultaneously with water splittin
 g in the very same device. However\, in contrast to water splitting\, the 
 Faraday efficiency of electro-chemical CO2 reduction towards the sought en
 d product\, e.g.\, methanol\, is much smaller than one. In this talk\, I w
 ill review some renown facts most importantly the one that almost all “e
 lectro-chemical” CO2 reduction reactions in aqueous media are strictly s
 peaking catalytic reactions taking place in parallel to electro-chemical w
 ater splitting. Based on this we arrive at a new interpretation of the obs
 erved voltage-current relations. I will present some fundamental experimen
 ts corroborating this interpretation and its consequences for new material
 s design for both catalytic as well as electro-chemical CO2 reduction.\n\n
 The seminar can also be followed remotely by joining the online Cisco WebE
 x meeting (connection possible 15 minutes before the talk).\nSee here the 
 documentation how to install the Cisco WebEx add-on on your computer.\nIn 
 case of problem\, you can contact our IT support (37679 - it.vs@epfl.ch ) 
LOCATION:I17 4 K2 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==I17%204%20K2
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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