Electrochemical Routes for Upgrading Carbon-based Greenhouse Gases

Investigating electrocatalytic routes to upgrade prevalent greenhouse gases (GHGs) like CO2 and CH4 offers opportunities for sustainable manufacturing of value-added commodities (e.g., C2H4, CH3OH). Moreover, the availability of "cheap electrons" makes this route more attractive. It opens the potential to achieve a high reaction rate, high control over product selectivity, relatively milder operating conditions, and an excellent avenue for large-scale industrial applications. The central focus of this work is to advance experimental and computational methods to develop highly efficient electrochemical systems for CO2 capture, clean energy production & storage and to understand the dynamics at the electrode-electrolyte interface to gain mechanistic insight into sustainable electrochemical reactions. This work describes the prototyping of such electrochemical systems for capturing CO2 and converting CO2 & CH4 to fuels and value-added products. It encapsulates a combination of experimental and computational approaches in setting up an electrochemical system involving syntheses and characterization of electrocatalysts, designing & fabricating electrochemical reactors, fundamental insights into reaction mechanisms, and accessing the scope of scaling up such processes.