The electrochemical conversion of CO2 (CO2RR) offers a promising approach to lowering atmospheric CO2 levels while producing value-added chemicals and fuels. Understanding operating parameters is essential for boosting the CO2RR performance and scaling up electrolyzers, with pressure playing a critical role due to the inherently low solubility of CO2 in aqueous electrolytes. In this work, a techno-economic assessment of a pressurized CO2-to-CO electrolysis system with a membrane electrode assembly configuration is conducted to evaluate the cost drivers and optimization pathways. Increasing operating pressure from 0 to 40 bar significantly reduces the product cost from US2259/tCO to US914/tCO, underscoring the economic advantage of pressurization. At elevated pressures, Faradaic efficiency toward CO can also be increased via increasing CO2 excess, though this raises downstream separation costs. The minimum levelized cost of CO is achieved when the CO2 excess is 3. 88, corresponding to US624/tCO. Sensitivity analysis identifies electricity cost as the dominant cost factor. Overall, these findings highlight the economic benefits of pressurized CO2 electrolysis and provide guidance for future research.
Sun et al. (Fri,) studied this question.