CO2RR-OOR electrolyser system and related process for facilitating the capture and conversion of CO2 in gas mixture streams

A process for electrochemically converting a gaseous carbon dioxide stream to multi-carbon products having at least two carbon atoms in a carbon dioxide reduction reaction/organic oxidation reaction (CO2RR/OOR), the process is characterized in that it comprises:

• a) providing a CO2RR/OOR system being a catholyte-free system and comprising:
• an anodic compartment comprising an anode and configured to operate the organic oxidation reaction;
• and
• a cathodic compartment comprising a cathode with a CO2 reduction reaction catalyst being or comprising copper and being configured to operate carbon dioxide reduction reactions;
• b) providing a solution comprising an anolyte and an organic liquid-phase precursor of an organic oxidation reaction;
• c) supplying the solution to the anodic compartment of the CO2RR/OOR system to operate the organic oxidation reaction and generate an anodic product mixture comprising OOR liquid-phase products;
• d) supplying a gaseous CO2-containing stream to the cathodic compartment of the CO2RR/OOR system to operate the reduction of a first portion of CO2 and generate a cathodic product mixture comprising multi-carbon products, wherein a second portion of CO2 is transferred to the anodic compartment by an ionic exchange to produce a crossover CO2;
• e) recovering the anodic product mixture from the anodic compartment, the anodic product mixture comprising the crossover CO2;
• f) separating the crossover CO2 from the anodic product mixture to produce a CO2-depleted product stream and a recovered pure gaseous CO2 stream.