Establishing Product Concentration Benchmarks for Two Step Tandem Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to C2H4

Establishing Product Concentration Benchmarks for Two Step Tandem Electrochemical Conversion of CO2 to C2H4 | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Establishing Product Concentration Benchmarks for Two Step Tandem Electrochemical Conversion of CO 2 to C 2 H 4 Ryan Lively, Akriti Sarswat, Anthony Cochran, Suhyun Kim, Xiaohan Yu, and 4 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8733722/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Despite the strong focus on developing electrochemical conversion systems for upgrading CO2 to C2+ hydrocarbons, the downstream separations required to complement the reactors have received relatively less attention. In this work, we develop materials for the separation of two critical binary gas mixtures, CO2/CO and C2H4/CO. These mixtures are produced in a tandem reaction system that first upgrades CO2 to CO in a solid oxide fuel cell, followed by reduction of CO in a separate electrolyzer that produces ethylene. We then model the entire plant, including gas and liquid separation systems to determine the effect that product concentrations from the reactor have on the overall process economics. Our analysis shows that effective gas separations via pressure swing adsorption processes, using the materials developed in this work, significantly enhance the Net Present Value of the plant, rendering gas separation no longer a limiting factor in process economics. However, liquid product concentrations at ~1 wt% (typical of current literature) and high CO2 capture costs (> $50/ton) can make the process economically unviable. Physical sciences/Engineering/Chemical engineering Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for energy and catalysis/Metal–organic frameworks Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files TOC.pptx TOC Notice of Copyright: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The publisher acknowledges the US government license to provide public access under the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). SI.docx Supplementary Information Document Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8733722","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":584289104,"identity":"47ab5286-3a09-46d5-8a07-672fe7c842d8","order_by":0,"name":"Ryan Lively","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8039-4008","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ryan","middleName":"","lastName":"Lively","suffix":""},{"id":584289105,"identity":"48a7b80c-dd48-41c2-b240-52a057da835e","order_by":1,"name":"Akriti Sarswat","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Akriti","middleName":"","lastName":"Sarswat","suffix":""},{"id":584289106,"identity":"467b8d8c-09fd-47b3-a409-7929af56b519","order_by":2,"name":"Anthony Cochran","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anthony","middleName":"","lastName":"Cochran","suffix":""},{"id":584289107,"identity":"bdd020bb-3ce3-438d-a6eb-97094787ecd1","order_by":3,"name":"Suhyun Kim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Suhyun","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""},{"id":584289108,"identity":"7c51461f-4545-4b31-b88b-5be981ed6157","order_by":4,"name":"Xiaohan Yu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiaohan","middleName":"","lastName":"Yu","suffix":""},{"id":584289109,"identity":"118c376c-ee69-42ea-a25c-91f9d44ebf28","order_by":5,"name":"Hanjun Fang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Hanjun","middleName":"","lastName":"Fang","suffix":""},{"id":584289110,"identity":"0118e873-df1d-41e6-89d6-0e3826c6e63e","order_by":6,"name":"Seo-Yul Kim","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Georgia Institute of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Seo-Yul","middleName":"","lastName":"Kim","suffix":""},{"id":584289111,"identity":"1d17e7d4-3b07-4bae-b77b-306682826df9","order_by":7,"name":"David Sholl","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Rice University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"","lastName":"Sholl","suffix":""},{"id":584289112,"identity":"843624bf-cf1d-48e5-9126-f57d2be65f77","order_by":8,"name":"Mahinder Ramdin","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8476-7035","institution":"TU Delft","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Mahinder","middleName":"","lastName":"Ramdin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-01-29 16:28:01","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8733722/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8733722/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":101753932,"identity":"4edf15ce-d54b-4ed2-a838-3f2e607e138a","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-03 10:41:12","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":885693,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"Manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8733722/v1_covered_0e137fa3-54b4-42c4-8ab9-d23caec4b34e.pdf"},{"id":101743413,"identity":"462dbaf5-a115-446d-8c14-35c4c282fe9c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-02-03 08:49:54","extension":"pptx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":874473,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eTOC\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotice of Copyright: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). 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