Advancing integrated CO electrochemical conversion with amine-based CO capture: a review.

Carbon dioxide (CO) electrolysis is a promising route to utilise captured CO as a building block to produce valuable feedstocks and fuels such as carbon monoxide and ethylene. Very recently, CO electrolysis has been proposed as an alternative process to replace the amine recovery unit of the commercially available amine-based CO capture process. This process would replace the most energy-intensive unit operation in amine scrubbing while providing a route for CO conversion. The key enabler for such process integration is to develop an efficient integrated electrolyser that can convert CO and recover the amine simultaneously. Herein, this review provides an overview of the fundamentals and recent progress in advancing integrated CO conversion in amine-based capture media. This review first discusses the mechanisms for both CO absorption in the capture medium and electrochemical conversion of the absorbed CO. We then summarise recent advances in improving the efficiency of integrated electrolysis innovating electrodes, tailoring the local reaction environment, optimising operation conditions (, temperatures and pressures), and modifying cell configurations. This review is concluded with future research directions for understanding and developing integrated CO electrolysers.