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AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsChengxiang Xiang, Harry A. Atwater, Ibadillah A. Digdaya
Estimating the term…
Disclosed are electrochemical systems that include an electrodialyzer and a vapor-fed CO2 reduction (CO2R) cell to capture and convert CO2 from ocean water. The electrodialyzer includes a stack of bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BPMED) cells between end electrodes. The electrodialzyer incorporates monovalent cation exchange membranes (M-CEMs) that prevent the transfer of multivalent cations between adjacent cell compartments, allowing continuous recirculation of electrolytes and solutions, and thus providing a safer and more scaling-free electrodialysis system. In some embodiments, the electrodialyzer may be configured to replace the water-splitting reaction at end electrodes with one-electron, reversible redox couples in solution at the electrodes. As a result, in the entire electrodialyzer stack, there is no bond-making, bond-breaking reactions and there is no gas generation, which significantly simplifies the cell design and improves operational safety. The systems provide a unique technological pathway for CO2 capture and conversion from ocean water with only electrochemical processes.
An electrodialyzer, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.