The recent increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is concerning due to its impact on global climate. However, state of the art alternative energy has limited availability, while storage and transport of electrical energy is challenging. One solution to these challenges is to store electrical energy in liquid fuels for on-demand conversion to energy. Formate is a promising liquid for energy storage because its conversion from carbon dioxide only requires reduction without the formation of a carbon-carbon bond; this is possible through electrochemical reduction on metals such as Sn.<br/>We have reduced sodium carbonate solution to sodium formate using a tin electrode in a three electrode cell and a two electrode cell using a potentiostat to maintain potential control. It is known that carbon dioxide can be reduced on tin to a primary product of formate because the carbon dioxide does not strongly adsorb to the tin surface. In the case of other metals, such as zinc, carbon dioxide adsorbs strongly to the surface and the primary product is CO.<br/>We then transitioned to the electrolysis and fuel cell device so that formate is regenerated using solar power. We have found that the electrolysis cell converts carbonate to nearly 0.5 M formate within approximately 5 minutes. The formate is then used to power the fuel cell.<br/>Presently, calculations are being performed to determine the efficiency of the electrolysis cell, the fuel cell, and the overall device efficiency in its present form. Finally, the device will be optimized to improve its efficiency.

Formate: An energy-storage and -transport bridge between carbon dioxide and formate fuel cell

251st National Meeting (2016)

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