Electrode

Organic chemistry

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Composite number

Engineering

Faraday efficiency

Catalysis

Electrolysis

Carbon fibers

Physical chemistry

Composite material

Chemistry

Materials science

Ethylene

Membrane electrode assembly

Cathode

Carbon monoxide

Electrolyte

Chemical engineering

Electrochemistry

Waste management

Joule

Electrochemical CO2 reduction is a promising strategy to synthesize valuable multi-carbon products (C2+) while sequestering CO2 and utilizing intermittent renewable electricity. Here, we present a stable membrane electrode assembly (MEA) electrolyzer that converts CO2 to C2+ products. This strategy achieves ∼50% and ∼80% selectivity for ethylene and C2+ products, respectively, with cathode outlet concentrations of ∼30% ethylene and the direct production of ∼4 wt % ethanol. We characterize stability by operating continuously for 100 h with steady ethylene production.

Continuous Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction to Concentrated Multi-carbon Products Using a Membrane Electrode Assembly