Syngas production from the air

Abstract

Syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, is a crucial building block in various chemical processes and is primarily produced from fossil fuels. Exploring sustainable carbon and hydrogen sources for syngas production presents a promising avenue for reducing the carbon footprint in the chemical industry. Here, we demonstrate the production of syngas from atmospheric carbon dioxide and moisture by integrating adsorption-based CO₂/H₂O capture with electrochemical CO₂ reduction. The water captured from the air not only was employed for the in situ generation of vapors at 60°C to effectively release CO₂ adsorbed on amine-functionalized materials but also served as the hydrogen source in the subsequent electrolysis. The product CO₂ and water were converted into syngas using a gallium-based electrolyzer, with an overall energy requirement of 56.4 MJ/kg_syngas. This air-to-syngas technology enables the production of carbon-neutral chemicals from the atmosphere, offering significant potential to reduce carbon emissions from industries.