NH 3 -Mediated Reactive Capture and Conversion: Integrating CO 2 Absorption from Flue Gas with CO Production via NH 4 HCO 3 Electrolysis
Open Access
- 18 March 2026
- journal article
- Published by American Chemical Society (ACS) in ACS Energy Letters
- Vol. 11 (4) , 3340-3349
Abstract
Efficient carbon capture and utilization require strategies that minimize energy penalties of CO2 regeneration and compression. Reactive capture and conversion (RCC) address this challenge by integrating capture with direct electrochemical conversion. Here, we show an NH3-mediated tandem RCC system that couples capture of CO2 from simulated flue gas (10% v/v CO2 in N2) with electroreduction of NH4HCO3 to CO over a Ni single-atom catalyst (Ni-SAC). Speciation modeling and capture experiments revealed that a deep CO2 capture with C/N ratio of 0.65 was achieved using 2.5 M NH3 from simulated flue gas. Electrolysis of the resulting NH4HCO3 on the Ni-SAC delivered an 85% CO Faradaic efficiency at 100 mA/cm2 with excellent tolerance to NH3/NH4 + as confirmed by DFT calculations and ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations. Further, the techno-economic analysis established a levelized total cost of CO manufacturing of $25.43/kmol, gauging the practical viability. Overall, this study holds great potential to decarbonize the chemical manufacturing industry while reducing synthetic production costs.Keywords
Funding Information
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-AC02-07CH11358)
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0018284)
- Basic Energy Sciences (DE-SC0025376)
- Iowa State University
- National Science Foundation (2219162)
- National Science Foundation (2219172)
- National Science Foundation (2316481)
- National Science Foundation (2316482)
- National Science Foundation (2428214)
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- High-current-density electrosynthesis of formate from captured CO2 solution by MOF-derived bismuth nanosheetsChemical Engineering Journal, 2025
- Hierarchical design enables sufficient activated CO2 for efficient electrolysis of bicarbonate to COJoule, 2024
- Surface-modified silver aerogels combining interfacial regulation for electrocatalytic CO2 reduction under large current densityChemical Engineering Journal, 2024
- Sustainable CO2 management through integrated CO2 capture and conversionJournal of CO2 Utilization, 2023
- Absorption Kinetics of CO2 in Aqueous Ammonia with High Load and SalinityIndustrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 2023
- Bicarbonate Electroreduction to Multicarbon Products Enabled by Cu/Ag Bilayer Electrodes and Tailored MicroenviromentsChemSusChem, 2022
- General Synthetic Strategy to Ordered Mesoporous Carbon Catalysts with Single‐Atom Metal Sites for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction (Small 16/2022)Small, 2022
- The Emergence of Aqueous Ammonium‐Ion BatteriesAngewandte Chemie, 2021
- Impact of Alkali Cation Identity on the Conversion of HCO3− to CO in Bicarbonate ElectrolyzersChemElectroChem, 2021
- Electrolytic Conversion of Bicarbonate into CO in a Flow CellJoule, 2019