Chemical Engineering Journal

As a solution for simultaneously reducing harmful air pollutants containing ammonia and CO2, with respect to ameliorating the effects of global warming, we report a co-electrolytic process involving ammonia oxidation reaction (AOR) and an electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (ECR) for syngas production that uses less energy compared to the conventional process. The conventional process is based on ECR and an oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and it requires a high amount of energy because of its higher thermodynamic and practical operation voltage. By contrast, the new co-electrolytic process employs an AOR instead of an OER, and a decreased energy consumption (maximum 34.04%) is observed with the addition of ammonia. The new process provides advantages with respect to its lower energy consumption and controllable hydrogen and carbon monoxide ratio. We also found that this syngas production method, in which the NH3 concentration and applied current can be controlled, produces syngas with different H2 and CO ratios, it is comparable to that used in the conventional Fischer-Tropsch process.