Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate

Climate change, driven predominantly by anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion, has led to significant greenhouse gas emissions. In response, the United Nations' COP28 has set an ambitious goal to reduce emissions by 43 % by 2030, with the aim of limiting global temperature ris...

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Autores: Díaz Sainz, Guillermo, Abarca González, José Antonio|||0000-0003-0120-8682, Uriarte Porres, Iker|||0009-0003-5390-2446, Ramírez Vidal, Álvaro, Muñoz Morales, Martín, Irabien Gulías, Ángel|||0000-0002-2411-4163, Llanos López, Javier, Álvarez Guerra, Manuel|||0000-0002-3546-584X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
Repositorio:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/37059
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10902/37059
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Biomass-waste derivates
CO2 Electroreduction
Formate
Gas diffusion electrodes
Typha dominguensis
Phragmites australis
Claudium mariscus
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spelling Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formateDíaz Sainz, GuillermoAbarca González, José Antonio|||0000-0003-0120-8682Uriarte Porres, Iker|||0009-0003-5390-2446Ramírez Vidal, ÁlvaroMuñoz Morales, MartínIrabien Gulías, Ángel|||0000-0002-2411-4163Llanos López, JavierÁlvarez Guerra, Manuel|||0000-0002-3546-584XBiomass-waste derivatesCO2 ElectroreductionFormateGas diffusion electrodesTypha dominguensisPhragmites australisClaudium mariscusClimate change, driven predominantly by anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion, has led to significant greenhouse gas emissions. In response, the United Nations' COP28 has set an ambitious goal to reduce emissions by 43 % by 2030, with the aim of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °C. Among the various CO2 mitigation strategies, Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) is particularly promising, especially the electrochemical reduction of CO2 into valuable chemicals. This process not only curtails CO2 emissions but also facilitates the production of renewable chemicals such as formic acid and formate. Gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are central to CO2 electroreduction, with the microporous layer playing a critical role in preventing flooding and optimizing catalyst interaction. However, traditional carbon black-based microporous layers, such as those made from Vulcan XC-72R, raise environmental and health concerns. This study explores the use of biomass-derived materials, specifically lignocellulosic species, processed via hydrothermal carbonization, pyrolysis, and chemical activation. The results show that GDEs incorporating a biomass and Vulcan XC-72R (50 % wt) mixture achieve high formate concentrations (1.8 g·L-1) and Faradaic efficiency toward formate (80 %) at 90 mA·cm-2-performances that are comparable to or even superior to those of GDEs made solely with commercial Vulcan XC-72R. This demonstrates that these sustainable biomass-derived materials have great potential to effectively replace up to 50 % of carbon black materials and thereby reducing reliance on non-renewable resources, for the production of high-value chemicals from CO2.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support through projects TED2021-129810B-C21, PLEC2022-009398 (MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and Uni´on Europea Next GenerationEU/ PRTR), PID2022-138491OB-C31 and PID2022-141265OB-I00 (MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FEDER, UE) and the Complementary Plan in the area of “Energy and Renewable Hydrogen” (funded by Autonomous Community of Cantabria, Spain, and the European Union Next GenerationEU/PRTR). The present work is related to CAPTUS Project. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programme under grant agreement No 101118265. Jose Antonio Abarca gratefully acknowledges the predoctoral research grant (FPI) PRE2021-097200.ElsevierUniversidad de Cantabria20252025-10-15journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501NAhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_be7fb7dd8ff6fe43info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttps://hdl.handle.net/10902/37059Chemical Engineering Journal, 2025, 522, 167825reponame:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabriainstname:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)Inglésengopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:repositorio.unican.es:10902/370592026-06-02T12:39:31Z
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
title Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
spellingShingle Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
Díaz Sainz, Guillermo
Biomass-waste derivates
CO2 Electroreduction
Formate
Gas diffusion electrodes
Typha dominguensis
Phragmites australis
Claudium mariscus
title_short Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
title_full Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
title_fullStr Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
title_full_unstemmed Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
title_sort Turning waste into value: fabrication of gas diffusion electrodes from biomass-derived materials for CO2 electroreduction to formate
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Díaz Sainz, Guillermo
Abarca González, José Antonio|||0000-0003-0120-8682
Uriarte Porres, Iker|||0009-0003-5390-2446
Ramírez Vidal, Álvaro
Muñoz Morales, Martín
Irabien Gulías, Ángel|||0000-0002-2411-4163
Llanos López, Javier
Álvarez Guerra, Manuel|||0000-0002-3546-584X
author Díaz Sainz, Guillermo
author_facet Díaz Sainz, Guillermo
Abarca González, José Antonio|||0000-0003-0120-8682
Uriarte Porres, Iker|||0009-0003-5390-2446
Ramírez Vidal, Álvaro
Muñoz Morales, Martín
Irabien Gulías, Ángel|||0000-0002-2411-4163
Llanos López, Javier
Álvarez Guerra, Manuel|||0000-0002-3546-584X
author_role author
author2 Abarca González, José Antonio|||0000-0003-0120-8682
Uriarte Porres, Iker|||0009-0003-5390-2446
Ramírez Vidal, Álvaro
Muñoz Morales, Martín
Irabien Gulías, Ángel|||0000-0002-2411-4163
Llanos López, Javier
Álvarez Guerra, Manuel|||0000-0002-3546-584X
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.contributor.none.fl_str_mv Universidad de Cantabria
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Biomass-waste derivates
CO2 Electroreduction
Formate
Gas diffusion electrodes
Typha dominguensis
Phragmites australis
Claudium mariscus
topic Biomass-waste derivates
CO2 Electroreduction
Formate
Gas diffusion electrodes
Typha dominguensis
Phragmites australis
Claudium mariscus
description Climate change, driven predominantly by anthropogenic activities such as fossil fuel combustion, has led to significant greenhouse gas emissions. In response, the United Nations' COP28 has set an ambitious goal to reduce emissions by 43 % by 2030, with the aim of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 °C. Among the various CO2 mitigation strategies, Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) is particularly promising, especially the electrochemical reduction of CO2 into valuable chemicals. This process not only curtails CO2 emissions but also facilitates the production of renewable chemicals such as formic acid and formate. Gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) are central to CO2 electroreduction, with the microporous layer playing a critical role in preventing flooding and optimizing catalyst interaction. However, traditional carbon black-based microporous layers, such as those made from Vulcan XC-72R, raise environmental and health concerns. This study explores the use of biomass-derived materials, specifically lignocellulosic species, processed via hydrothermal carbonization, pyrolysis, and chemical activation. The results show that GDEs incorporating a biomass and Vulcan XC-72R (50 % wt) mixture achieve high formate concentrations (1.8 g·L-1) and Faradaic efficiency toward formate (80 %) at 90 mA·cm-2-performances that are comparable to or even superior to those of GDEs made solely with commercial Vulcan XC-72R. This demonstrates that these sustainable biomass-derived materials have great potential to effectively replace up to 50 % of carbon black materials and thereby reducing reliance on non-renewable resources, for the production of high-value chemicals from CO2.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025-10-15
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
NA
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_be7fb7dd8ff6fe43
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/10902/37059
url https://hdl.handle.net/10902/37059
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Elsevier
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv Chemical Engineering Journal, 2025, 522, 167825
reponame:UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
instname:Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
instname_str Universidad de Cantabria (UC)
reponame_str UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
collection UCrea Repositorio Abierto de la Universidad de Cantabria
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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