Spotlight Feature – Dr Preetam Sharma
Postdoctoral Researcher
Electrochemical reduction of CO2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University
At CircularChem, my research for WP1.1 is focused on catalysts and reactors development for efficient electrochemical reduction of CO2. The enhancement in the carbonaceous product selectivity, current density, operation stability and energy efficiency will pave way for the commercialisation of the technology. Utilising renewable electricity and waste CO2, electrochemical processes provide innovative and sustainable means for fuels and chemicals production without petrochemicals. My background in catalytic materials and reactors is being utilised well in the project. With binary metal/metal oxide catalysts, we have achieved high selectivity (>60%) for C2+ products. The operational stability of the reactors is also being enhanced by engineering the gas diffusion electrode (GDE) layers. Tuning composition and hydrophobicity of GDE, the stability of reaction system has been improved significantly from hours to days.