High-Performance Alkaline Membranes For Solar Driven CO2 Electrolyzers

Solar driven carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion is promising to produce value- added products such as ethylene and ethanol without using additional CO2 generating power sources. Presently, no suitable membranes exist for this application. Instead, people use membranes designed for other applications, but these membranes show too much crossover to be used for commercial solar driven CO2 electrolysis to produce alcohols. Dioxide Materials already sells alkaline exchange membranes for use in zero- gap CO2 electrolyzers. Dioxide Materials’ staff will create new membranes that meet the needs for solar driven CO2 electrolysis producing value added products. In the Phase I work, Dioxide Materials’ staff modified the existing membranes, reducing ethanol crossover by about one order of magnitude (Phase I target) with area specific resistance of < 1Ocm2 (Phase II target) or reducing ethanol crossover by about two orders of magnitudes (Phase II target) with area specific resistance of <5Ocm2 (Phase I target). The membranes were tested in zero-gap CO2 electrolyzers, and ethylene and ethanol were produced from CO2. In the Phase II work, Dioxide Materials will further improve the membrane to reduce ethanol crossover by about two orders of magnitude with area specific resistance of < 1Ocm2. The membrane will be tested in solar driven CO2 electrolyzers. And the membrane production will be scaled so the membranes can be offered for sale and small solar driven CO2 electrolyzer can be built. Upon success, Dioxide Materials will be synthesizing and selling anion exchange membranes designed for the solar powered CO2 electrolysis, creating new jobs and revenues for U.S. manufacturers. It is also likely that we will be able to create and sell solar ethanol generators (manmade leaves) to enable solar fuels and chemicals production in locations not connected to the electrical grid.