MAKING WAVES IN ELECTROCHEMICAL CO2 REDUCTION: MECHANISTIC INSIGHTS, SCALE-UP, AND DEPLOYMENT ECONOMICS
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Electrochemical CO2 reduction offers a promising pathway to convert CO2 into value-added fuels and chemicals, but controlling product selectivity continues to be challenging. Recent work done in the Hanrath Lab has shown that programming potential waveforms can steer reaction intermediates by tuning pulse shape, potential, and timing. In this work, we explored using differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) with ~500 ms time resolution, demonstrating that pulsed and multi-step potential (MSP) sequences suppress hydrogen evolution and can modulate CO* surface coverage and local pH, two key drivers of C1 versus C2 product selectivity. Scaling up to membrane electrode assembly (MEA) electrolyzers, we see that pulsing duty-cycle variation has minimal effect on CO selectivity, a necessary precursor to value-added products such as methane and ethanol, but significantly reduces catalyst degradation. This result indicated that the boundary-layer mechanisms governing aqueous-phase pulsing do not transfer to gas-phase architectures. Finally, a techno-economic analysis of integrating pulsed ECO2R with anaerobic digesters at New York State dairy farms demonstrates a viable 20-year net-profit value under combined LCFS and RFS policy incentives, establishing a direct path from mechanistic insight to farm-scale CO2 valorization.