Numerical simulation of CO2 reduction to carbon monoxide in an electrochemical cell

From the increasing concentration of the greenhouse gas CO2 in the atmosphere, due to extensive anthropogenic employment of fossil-based processes over the last decades, a hazardous situation of climate change has developed. Different technologies for avoiding, capturing, and recycling CO2 are researched, one of the latter is the electrochemical CO2 reduction. It allows the conversion of CO2 into high-value products at ambient conditions and can be combined with hydrogen production and intermittent renewable energy sources. In this work, simulation is conducted to investigate the effect of mass transport on the electrochemical CO2 reduction and the product distribution on a polycrystalline silver 2D idealized catalyst with the employment of a CO2-saturated 0.1M KHCO3 electrolyte.