For decades, researchers have been working toward mitigating excess atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. One promising approach captures atmospheric CO₂ and then, through CO₂ electrolysis, converts it into value-added chemicals and intermediates—like ethanol, ethylene, and other useful chemicals. While significant research has been devoted to improving the rate and selectivity of CO₂ electrolysis, reducing the energy consumption of this high-power process has been underexplored.

Surplus industrial carbon dioxide creates an opportunity to convert waste into a valuable commodity. Excess CO2 can be a feedstock for chemicals typically derived from fossil fuels, but the process is energy-intensive and expensive. University of Illinois chemical engineers have assessed the technical and economic feasibility of a new electrolysis technology that uses a cheap biofuel byproduct to reduce the energy consumption of the waste-to-value process by 53 percent.

The new findings are published in the journal Nature Energy.