Effect of Electric Fields on the Conversion of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Via Reverse Water-Gas Shift with Chemical Looping (RWGS-CL).

The conversion of carbon dioxide gas into hydrocarbon fuels is a significant technology in reducing carbon dioxide gas emissions and reducing the gap between carbon dioxide emissions and its conversion. In 2020, 7.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions were produced globally from the transportation sector. Ideally, converting existing carbon dioxide into fuels will reduce the emissions of new carbon dioxide gas and close a synthetic carbon loop. Additionally, the gap between carbon dioxide emissions and their conversion will be reduced because of the carbon dioxide conversion to the high production volume of fuels.

Currently, the most promising approach to the production of hydrocarbon fuels from carbon dioxide is Carbon Dioxide Conversion by Reverse Water-Gas Shift Chemical Looping (RWGS-CL). RWGS-CL leads to the production of carbon monoxide which is added to hydrogen to form liquid hydrocarbons by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. Although RWGS-CL results in maximum production of carbon monoxide at lower temperatures compared to other approaches, more research work is still needed to reduce its energy dependence.

The focus of our research group is to investigate the effects of electric fields on RWGS-CL to reduce its energy dependence. To advance our research work, we are working on finding the suitable catalyst with the highest reactivity and determining the best setup for the capacitor reactor. Our work is still in progress, and we are seeing significant improvement in our results. My role includes learning about possible catalysts to use, preparing catalysts, and helping in running the experiments and analyzing the results.

Success in reducing the energy dependence of RWGS-CL will result in the production of cheaper fuels than the current fossil fuels. As a result, there will be a shift from the use of the current fossil fuel energy in the transportation sector and a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.