Formate Species as Carbon and Energy Carriers for CCUS and Hydrogen Energy
- Aqueous formate solution is a novel carbon carrier for improved carbon management.
Carbon storage in geologic formations has been considered an important technology that reduces the carbon intensity of industrial processes based on fossil fuels. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) conventionally uses high-pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) as a carbon carrier. However, various shortcomings of the conventional CCS are related to the physical properties of CO2, such as low carbon density at low to moderate pressure, low mass density, low viscosity, immiscibility with water, and corrosivity. In particular, CO2 injection often results in inefficient use of pore space in the formation under geophysical heterogeneities.
This project is concerned with the novel idea of using a formate solution as an aqueous carbon carrier for geological carbon storage. Formate (HCOO-) is the simplest member of the carboxylate group and the conjugate base for formic acid. Formate can be formed from the electrochemical reduction (ECR) of CO2. Recent studies on the CO2 ECR into formate showed that using gas diffusion electrodes greatly improved the mass transfer process and presented a possibility of industrial scaling of the CO2 ECR into formate.
