/All-vapor-phase CO2 electrolyser for synthesis of e-fuels and chemicals directly from flue gas or air.

All-vapor-phase CO2 electrolyser for synthesis of e-fuels and chemicals directly from flue gas or air.

PhD - Leuven | Just now

Make fuels and chemicals from air: the all-maker electrolyser system

Global warming is one of the biggest challenges that our society is facing today. True circularity of carbon is needed to fulfil the increasing demand for energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The electrochemical reduction of CO2 back to valuable molecules for chemical industry or as e-fuels are examples of how the carbon cycle can be restored. At imec we are using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of electrochemical reactions in electrolyzers and fuel cells. We have developed a few micron thick nanomesh electrode with extremely large surface area, which significantly lowers the reaction overpotential, making the electrocatalytic reaction more energy efficient. The nanomesh electrode is currently being upscaled for applications in water and CO2 electrolyzers. Today, we are further developing this technology towards CO2 electroreduction to products like synthesis gas and methanol. We are developing gas-diffusion-electrodes (GDE) with high throughput and a potential to convert CO2 directly from flue gas and eventually even from air. We are developing smart catalyst approaches to steer the electrocatalytic reaction path towards the desired products and yields. We are working on sorbent materials to augment CO2 supply to the catalyst in the gas diffusion electrodes. We are using modelling to understand the mass transport and confinement effects in these nanoporous gas electrodes. Today, low temperature CO2 electrolysis happens in (partially) liquid fed systems, which always leads to mass transport and selectivity challenges due to the low solubility of CO2 in water. To overcome this limitation, the future of CO2 electrolysis lies in a full vapour electrolyzer. 

 

In this PhD topic, you will build a vapour-phase CO2 electrolyzer. You will build on materials already developed within imec, such as the nanomesh gas diffusion electrode, the sorbent electrolyte and our thin-film coatings. You will optimize these materials further and  integrate them into an ionically coupled membrane electrode assembly and study the effect of material properties, integration and experimental conditions (T, P, humidity) on electrolyzer performance. Thereby you will gain an understanding of the material requirements for full vapour electrolysis and use this knowledge to improve our materials. You will develop skills in material synthesis, integration and characterization. There is a possibility to apply computational modelling to grow our understanding, yet this is not a requirement. The final goal is to develop a high-throughput CO2-electrolyzer that directly operates from the gas-phase making full use of the high surface area of the nanomesh.  



Required background: Electrochemistry, chemistry, chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, material science, material engineering or a similar background

Type of work: Experimental with the option to include modelling

Supervisor: Philippe Vereecken

Co-supervisor: Martijn Blom

Daily advisor: Martijn Blom

The reference code for this position is 2026-034. Mention this reference code on your application form.

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