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Title: CYBER-PHYSICAL SYSTEM FOR A WATER RECLAMATION PLANT: BALANCING AERATION, ENERGY, AND WATER QUALITY TO MAINTAIN PROCESS RESILIENCE
Creator: Zhu, Junjie
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Aeration accounts for a large fraction of energy consumption in conventional water reclamation plants (WRPs). Although process operations at...
Show moreAeration accounts for a large fraction of energy consumption in conventional water reclamation plants (WRPs). Although process operations at older WRPs can satisfy effluent permit requirements, they typically operate with excess aeration. More effective process controls at older WRPs can be challenging as operators work to balance higher energy costs and more stringent effluent limitations while managing fluctuating loads. Therefore, understandings of process resilience or ability to quickly return to original operation conditions at a WRP are important. A state-of-art WRP should maintain process resilience to deal with different kinds of perturbations even after optimization of energy demands. This work was to evaluate the applicability and feasibility of cyber-physical system (CPS) for improving operation at Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC) Calumet WRP. In this work, a process model was developed and used to better understand the conditions of current Calumet WRP, with additional valuable information from two dissolved oxygen field measurements. Meanwhile, a classification system was developed to reveal the pattern of historical influent scenario based on cluster analysis and cross-tabulation analysis. Based on the results from the classification, typical process control options were investigated. To ensure the feasibility of information acquisition, the reliability and flexibility of soft sensors were assessed to typical influent conditions. Finally, the process resilience was investigated to better balance influent perturbations, energy demands, and effluent quality for long-term operations. These investigations and evaluations show that although the energy demands change as the influent conditions and process controls, in general, aeration savings could be up to 50% from the level of current consumption; with a more xix complex process controls, the saving could be up to 70% in relatively steady-state conditions and at least 40% in relatively challenging transient conditions. The soft sensors can provide reliable and flexible performance on target predictions. The plant can still maintain at a similar level of process resilience after 50% aeration saving, even during long-term perturbations. Overall, this work shows that it is well feasible to provide more cost-effective operations at the Calumet WRP, and meanwhile influent perturbations, effluent quality, and process resilience are well in balance. Keywords: Energy, aeration, effluent quality, perturbation, resilience, water reclamation plant.
Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, July 2015
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Title: OPERATION AND PLANNING OF COORDINATED NATURAL GAS AND ELECTRICITY INFRASTRUCTURES
Creator: Zhang, Xiaping
Date: 2015, 2015-07
Description: Natural gas is becoming rapidly the optimal choice for fueling new generating units in electric power system driven by abundant natural gas...
Show moreNatural gas is becoming rapidly the optimal choice for fueling new generating units in electric power system driven by abundant natural gas supplies and environmental regulations that are expected to cause coal-fired generation retirements. The growing reliance on natural gas as a dominant fuel for electricity generation throughout North America has brought the interaction between the natural gas and power grids into sharp focus. The primary concern and motivation of this research is to address the emerging interdependency issues faced by the electric power and natural gas industry. This thesis provides a comprehensive analysis of the interactions between the two systems regarding the short-term operation and long-term infrastructure planning. Natural gas and renewable energy appear complementary in many respects regarding fuel price and availability, environmental impact, resource distribution and dispatchability. In addition, demand response has also held the promise of making a significant contribution to enhance system operations by providing incentives to customers for a more flat load profile. We investigated the coordination between natural gas-fired generation and prevailing nontraditional resources including renewable energy, demand response so as to provide economical options for optimizing the short-term scheduling with the intense natural gas delivery constraints. As the amount and dispatch of gas-fired generation increases, the long-term interdependency issue is whether there is adequate pipeline capacity to provide sufficient gas to natural gas-fired generation during the entire planning horizon while it is widely used outside the power sector. This thesis developed a co-optimization planning model by incorporating the natural gas transportation system into the multi-year resource and transmission system planning problem.This consideration would provide a more comprehensive decision for the investment and accurate assessment for system adequacy and reliability. With the growing reliance on natural gas and widespread utilization of highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP), it is also questionable that whether the independent design of infrastructures can meet potential challenges of future energy supply. To address this issue, this thesis proposed an optimization framework for a sustainable multiple energy system expansion planning based on an energy hub model while considering the energy efficiency, emission and reliability performance. In addition, we introduced the probabilistic reliability evaluation and flow network analysis into the multiple energy system design in order to obtain an optimal and reliable network topology.
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering, July 2015
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Title: SMART GRID COORDINATION OF A CENTRALIZED POWER AND COOLING FOR AN URBAN COMMUNITY
Creator: Franco, Diego Pacheco
Date: 2016, 2016-05
Description: Because the world’s fossil fuel reserves are finite, it is essential to substantially improve the efficiency of all energy consumers. Heating,...
Show moreBecause the world’s fossil fuel reserves are finite, it is essential to substantially improve the efficiency of all energy consumers. Heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) accounts for 45% of energy consumption in residential buildings. Thus, this project studied and proposed solutions to improve the efficiency of such systems. The project begins with an analysis of a cooling system using electric chillers for a new hypothetical residential community in the Chicago area. Then, two new hybrid configurations were proposed: the utilization of electric and absorption chillers and then this system was augmented with a Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system. A simulation environment based on Matlab/Simulink®, using the concepts of Economic Model Predictive Control (EMPC) was developed to evaluate the performance of these configurations. The main benefits found were the increasing energy efficiency, the environmental impacts reduction and a reduction of more than 70% in operating costs (in some cases, profit was generated).
M.S. in Chemical Engineering, May 2016
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Title: Superior Reversible Hydrogen Storage of the LiBH4 + MgH2 System Enabled by High-Energy Ball Milling with In-Situ Aerosol Spraying
Creator: Ding, Zhao
Date: 2019
Description: The prospect of LiBH4 + MgH2 mixture has been limited by its sluggish kinetics, despite its excellent hydrogen storage capacity theoretically....
Show moreThe prospect of LiBH4 + MgH2 mixture has been limited by its sluggish kinetics, despite its excellent hydrogen storage capacity theoretically. We have designed a novel process termed as high-energy ball milling of MgH2 at ambient temperature along with aerosol spraying of LiBH4 dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution (BMAS) to improve the thermodynamic and kinetic performance of LiBH4 + MgH2 hydrogen storage materials. Through this BMAS process, we have demonstrated that, for the first time, the reaction between LiBH4 + MgH2 can take place near ambient temperature, and the in-situ formation of LiH and MgB2 during BMAS is achieved through a new reaction pathway in which nano-LiBH4 decomposes to Li2B12H12 first and the newly formed Li2B12H12 reacts with MgH2 to form LiH and MgB2.Using the newly designed automated BMAS apparatus, we have successfully produced a BMAS mixture containing 1 mole of MgH2 + 0.5 mole of LiBH4, i.e., with 25% LiBH4 in the mixture for the stoichiometric reaction. The BMAS powder with 25% LiBH4 can release and absorb ~5.7 wt.% H2 at 265 oC, which is the highest one ever reported for the LiBH4 + MgH2 system at temperature ≤ 265 oC. It is found that the unusually high reversible hydrogen storage is accomplished through two parallel reaction pathways. One is nano-LiBH4 decomposes to form Li2B12H12 and H2 first and then Li2B12H12 reacts with MgH2 to form MgB2, LiH and H2. The other is nano-MgH2 decomposes to form Mg and H2 first and then Mg reacts with LiBH4 to form MgB2, LiH and H2. These reaction pathways become possible because of the presence of nano-LiBH4 and nano-MgH2 and their intimate mixing, enabled by the BMAS process. We have also revealed that the solid-state dehydrogenation kinetics of the BMAS powder with 25% LiBH4 at 265 oC is nucleation-and-growth controlled. The rate-limiting step for dehydrogenation via the two parallel reaction pathways has been identified through examination of the elementary reactions as the nucleation and growth of reaction products LiH and MgB2. Given the significantly improved hydrogen storage capacity for the LiBH4 + MgH2 system obtained via BMAS, investigation on increasing the LiBH4 content in the BMAS powder from 25% to 50% is performed. It is shown that Mg(BH4)2 can be produced during the BMAS process and it contributes to H2 release at temperature ≤ 265 oC. Three parallel H2 release mechanisms have been identified from the BMAS powder. These include (i) nano-LiBH4 decomposes to form Li2B12H12 and H2 first and then Li2B12H12 reacts with MgH2 to form MgB2, LiH and H2, (ii) nano-Mg(BH4)2 decomposes to form MgH2, B and H2, and (iii) nano-MgH2 decomposes to Mg and H2. Together these three mechanisms result in 4.11 wt.% H2 release in the solid state at temperature ≤ 265 oC. Furthermore, the predicted property of Fe3B in absorbing more H2 than releasing it is confirmed experimentally for the first time in this study. Varied models have been identified to describe the kinetic of solid-state dehydrogenation of the BMAS powder with 50% LiBH4 at 265 oC with increasing cycles. Additionally, the geometries of the solid particles involving with the dehydrogenation have also been estimated.
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Title: Effects of the Silicon Content on the Dimensional Changes of Electrodes for Lithium-ion Cells: An Electrochemical Dilatometry Study
Creator: Rodrigues Prado, Andressa Yasmim
Date: 2021
Description: The continuous growth of the electric vehicle market has significantly increased the demand for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). However, state-of-the...
Show moreThe continuous growth of the electric vehicle market has significantly increased the demand for Li-ion batteries (LIBs). However, state-of-the-art LIBs are not yet able to meet the EV industry demand for high energy density and long cycle life rechargeable batteries, prompting efforts to improve the performance of Li-ion cells. In this context, silicon became the most promising next-generation active material for LIBs negative electrodes, especially because Si can significantly increase the lithium storage capacity of the commonly available anodes. Nonetheless, commercialization of Si-based electrodes has been hindered by the poor electrochemical performance of these electrodes, which is mainly attributed to the severe volumetric changes in the silicon particles related to the electrochemical reactions with Li. Since the electrodes are composites with a complex combination of various materials interspaced by pores, the electrode-level swelling may differ significantly from the particle-scale expansion. Furthermore, an increase in electrode thickness due to silicon expansion can have a direct effect on how Li-ion cells are designed, as the accommodation of electrode dilation requires additional cell space to prevent significant dynamic stresses. Thus, the actual volumetric energy density of a LIB cell depends on the electrode swelling, since the higher the magnitude of the electrode expansion, the lower the gains in energy density. Monitoring the electrode dilation is just as important as the electrochemical evaluation when designing cells with Si-based anodes.In this work, we use high-resolution operando electrochemical dilatometry to quantify the (de)lithiation-induced expansion/contraction of silicon, blended silicon-graphite and graphite electrodes, upon electrochemical cycling. We evaluate the relationship between electrode capacity and dilation and observe that while the lithiation capacity improved with increasing the silicon content, the electrode swelling is highly aggravated. For silicon-rich anodes, the electrode dilation can be higher than 300%, and the expansion profile consists of a combination of slow swelling at low levels of lithiation followed by an accelerated increase at higher lithium contents. This non-linear dilation allows for narrowing the swelling by limiting the electrode capacity. In addition, we investigate how electrode properties, such as porosity, affect the dilation profile, and quantify the irreversible expansion of the electrodes. Finally, we discuss some of the challenges associated with the dilatometry technique and suggest experimental approaches for obtaining consistent and reliable data.
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Title: Synthesis and Processing of NaSICON Membranes with High Ionic Conductivity and Good Mechanical Strength
Creator: Chiang, Shan-Ju
Date: 2019
Description: Natrium super ion conductors (NaSICONs), Na1+xZr2SixP3-xO12 (0 ≤ x ≤ 3) are compounds that commonly used as solid electrolytes and membranes...
Show moreNatrium super ion conductors (NaSICONs), Na1+xZr2SixP3-xO12 (0 ≤ x ≤ 3) are compounds that commonly used as solid electrolytes and membranes of sodium based batteries, or in gas sensors and fuel cells due to their high sodium ion conductivity, low thermal expansion, and ability to accommodate ions in the lattice. However, NaSICON with high relative density (> 97%) and minimum impurity phases is found to be very difficult to obtain. Furthermore, the cost of the general synthesis methods is a serious drawback. Multi-high-temperature heating procedures is often employed to increase the density and to attain the single phase NaSICON because the particle size and free ZrO2 are better reduced. This research explores the possibility of densification and synthesis of NaSICON in one high-temperature reaction through a novel process termed Integrated Mechanical and Thermal Activation (IMTA) and the co-sintering behavior as well as the NaSICON composite membranes from tape casting. The sintering temperature of NaSICON was decreased by mechanical activation at room temperature using high-energy ball milling. Sintered NaSICON-based materials showed highest total ionic conductivity of 1.45 × 10-3 S cm-1 at room temperature and high density of 3.155 g cm-3 (96.5%). An alternative to obtaining full densification (99%) of NaSICON ceramics was developed utilizing traditional solid-state reaction. This sintered NaSICON without any sintering aid exhibited the total conductivity, 6.59 × 10-4 S cm-1 at 25 °C, and the highest density of 3.238 g cm-3, a better than 2.6% enhancement from the original samples.The second part of the work has comprised of successful fabrication of NaSICON/polymer composite membranes and bi-layered NaSICON/stainless steel membranes to enhance the mechanical flexibility of pure NaSICON films. The effect of different particle sizes of stainless steel on the sintering behavior and shrinkage rate were studied systematically. The effect of solid content in the slurry was also studied to control the density of both support layer and NaSICON body. The affect structural ratios have on co-sintered tapes along with ionic conductivity was investigated using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The co-sintered membrane exhibited a total conductivity as high as 4.580 × 10-4 S/cm at room temperature. EIS results showed the high Na-ions conductivity strongly depends on the feature of grain boundary and the high densification of NaSICON layer.
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Title: ENERGY INNOVATIONS IN BUILDINGS AND URBAN FABRICS
Creator: Hirematt, Chandrasekharaiah Ashish
Date: 2021
Description: In his keynote speech on the "Infrastructures of Integration" at the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction, Ricky...
Show moreIn his keynote speech on the "Infrastructures of Integration" at the 5th International LafargeHolcim Forum for Sustainable Construction, Ricky Burdett, Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE), said “…you can actually invest in better infrastructure to do things better.” However, the population grows at the rate of almost one billion per decade. With about four fifths of it happening in urban areas, the challenge for sustainability is huge and the key for the future.Urban fabrics are expanding both vertically as well as horizontally to accommodate the population growth. With the scale of expansion happening, challenges such deforestation, resource depletion, habitat destruction, energy production and consumption are some of the major challenges that need to be focused on ecologically. It is also important to note that ecological solutions are very highly dependent on social and economic progress of the society. Energy efficient design is one which does zero or minimal damage to the environment while meeting the energy needs of the society. This thesis will discuss the concept of developing energy efficient designs as well as net zero designs in urban settings. With the help of three projects, this thesis aims to discover the challenges along with the obvious advantages of such designs. The first experiment is to look at the reduction of energy consumption in the city of Chicago with multiple neighborhoods set up in an iron grid. It was observed that taller buildings are much more energy efficient due to the reduction of surface area exposed to the external environment. This observation was used to develop a climate specific energy efficient urban fabric design in the city of Shenzhen. The design of the off-shore tower involves tackling larger issues such as the pandemic while having energy production as a bi-product of the same. Thus, the thesis argues that investment in infrastructure to build a better infrastructure should be done to solve social and economic challenges which will, in turn make it easier to produce energy efficient designs.
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Title: THE SPATIAL BLOCK: NATURAL VENTILATION IN HOT AND DRY CLIMATES OF TURKEY
Creator: BAY, EZGI
Date: 2020
Description: The housing deficit is a global problem. In Turkey, solutions to remedy scarce, unaffordable, and low-grade housing are being proposed by TOKI...
Show moreThe housing deficit is a global problem. In Turkey, solutions to remedy scarce, unaffordable, and low-grade housing are being proposed by TOKI, the governmental mass housing administration. Its residential projects based on ‘standard regulations’ and ‘high-rise typologies’ have been widely criticized. The ‘one size fits all’ approach is known for its limited exploration of contemporary needs of this society. Low quality urban and architectural conditions in TOKI projects are believed to marginalize the living standards of the residents. Sprawling rapidly throughout different regions around the country, a permanent complaint of TOKI residents is related to outdoor and indoor thermal conditions. As consequence of this ‘homogenization effect’, overheated and underheated conditions are experienced in these ‘naturally ventilated buildings’ designed with few considerations regarding the surrounding environment. Minimal research has been done on how TOKI towers perform under extreme seasonal conditions and what other building forms could be used in consonance with localized Turkish climates. Most TOKI projects have been developed for ‘hot and dry climates’ that also correspond to areas with larger urban growth from recent migrations. Through post-occupancy evaluations, this dissertation investigates a TOKI built in this climatic context. At the same time, this study brings new ‘typological’ alternatives analyzed through energy simulations and computer fluid dynamics (CFD). These methods are intended to bring clarity about the dynamic of thermal stress inside this project, and how renewable sources, such as prevailing winds, could be used to alleviate thermal related problems in consonance with ‘building forms’ derived from ‘vernacular architecture’ in this region.Inputs from residents illustrate the dynamics of thermal stress and reliance on natural ventilation in summer conditions. It is confirmed through results of the Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) and the Air Changes per Hour (ACH) obtained from Simulations in the IES-VE software. The relationship between human thermal comfort and indoor microclimate in TOKI housing can be improved through the reformulation of its residential typologies. The ‘Spatial Block’ approach presented in this dissertation brings the idea of how urban and architectural decisions in addition to improving indoor climatic conditions and thermal satisfaction or residents, brings them improved social integration.
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Title: IN SITU X-RAY ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY STUDY OF TIN-BASED GRAPHITE COMPOSITE ANODES FOR LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES
Creator: Ding, Yujia
Date: 2019
Description: Sn-based anode materials such as Sn, SnO2, Sn4P3, and SnS2 that exhibit large theoretical capacities are promising alternatives to traditional...
Show moreSn-based anode materials such as Sn, SnO2, Sn4P3, and SnS2 that exhibit large theoretical capacities are promising alternatives to traditional graphite anodes for Li-ion batteries. However, their capacities fade drastically in a few cycles due to substantial volume changes during the lithiation/delithiation process resulting in cracking and pulverization of the electrode. A graphite matrix is introduced by high-energy ball milling to obtain a graphite composite and enhance the electrochemical performance. Indeed, Sn4P3/graphite composite exhibits a reversible capacity of 651 mA h g-1 in the 100th cycle, and SnS2/graphite composite shows 591 mA h g-1 in the 50th cycle.To obtain a better understanding of the improved performance of the composite materials and the reason for the more gradual capacity fading, in situ EXAFS is used to investigate these mechanisms using in situ coin cells and in situ vacuum-sealed pouch cells. The collected EXAFS data were analyzed by modeling to extract detailed local environment changes during the lithiation/delithiation process.In the crystalline phases of Sn-based materials, the conversion reaction forming metallic Sn is partially reversible and partially irreversible, and the subsequent alloying/dealloying reaction forming LiSn alloys is reversible. Introducing the graphite matrix increases electrical conductivity and prevents aggregation of intermediate Sn clusters. The graphite matrix also plays a significant role in transforming composites into highly dispersed amorphous phases. These amorphous phases, formed in the first few cycles of Sn4P3/graphite and SnS2/graphite composites, exhibit excellent reversibility in both conversion and alloying/dealloying reactions, which is the main reason for the significant improvements in electrochemical performance. The slow growth of metallic Sn clusters and the slight reduction in amorphous phases result in gradual capacity loss over long-term cycling. Introducing the graphite matrix and creating highly dispersed composite samples are the successful strategies that can be scaled up to develop new battery materials in the future.
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Title: A New Control and Decision Support Framework To Avoid Fast-Evolving System Collapse and Cascading Failure
Creator: Guha, Bikiran
Date: 2022
Description: The modern power system is a vast and incredibly complex network with a very large number of equipment operating round the clock to reliably...
Show moreThe modern power system is a vast and incredibly complex network with a very large number of equipment operating round the clock to reliably transport electricity from generators to consumers. However, factors such as aging and faulty equipment, extreme and unpredictable weather, cyber attacks and increasing amounts of unpredictable renewable generation have made it increasingly vulnerable to cascading failure and wide-area collapse. Therefore, a lot of work has been done over the years on cascading failure vulnerability analysis and mitigation. However, to the best of our knowledge, the existing literature on this topic focus on preventive analysis and mitigation, mostly from a planning perspective. There is a lack of decision support schemes which can take real-time preventive action when the system becomes vulnerable to cascading failure, while taking into account the various dynamics and uncertainties involved in these types of failures. The only defense under these situations are pre-designed emergency control schemes. However, they are only effective against known vulnerabilities and can make matters worse if not accurately designed and calibrated.This research work has proposed a novel wide-area monitoring protection and control (N-WAMPAC-20) framework designed to make decisions in real-time to assess the vulnerabilities of the system (when a disturbance happens) and to implement mitigation actions, if necessary. The main contributions of this dissertation focus on the disturbance monitoring, real-time control and decision making aspects of this framework. The proposed framework has been divided into two major parts: an offline part and an online part. The offline part continuously runs extreme contingency analysis in the background (using combined dynamics and protection simulators) to generate elements which can assess system vulnerabilities and suggest suitable mitigation actions, if necessary. In this regard, a novel load shedding adjustment scheme is also proposed, which has been shown to be effective against a variety of fast-evolving cascading failure scenarios. The online part consists of real-time disturbance monitoring and decision-making components. The disturbance monitoring component focuses on real-time fault detection and location. If a fault has been identified and located, the real-time decision making component determines the vulnerability of the system, by consulting with the elements designed offline. If vulnerabilities are identified, targeted mitigation actions are implemented. The design and applicability of a prototype of N-WAMPAC-20 has been presented using a case of voltage collapse and a case of wide-area loss of synchronization on a synthetic model of the Texas grid.
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Title: Optimization methods and machine learning model for improved projection of energy market dynamics
Creator: Saafi, Mohamed Ali
Date: 2023
Description: Since signing the legally binding Paris agreement, governments have been striving to fulfill the decarbonization mission. To reduce carbon...
Show moreSince signing the legally binding Paris agreement, governments have been striving to fulfill the decarbonization mission. To reduce carbon emissions from the transportation sector, countries around the world have created a well-defined new energy vehicle development strategy that is further expanding into hydrogen vehicle technologies. In this study, we develop the Transportation Energy Analysis Model (TEAM) to investigate the impact of the CO2 emissions policies on the future of the automotive industries. On the demand side, TEAM models the consumer choice considering the impacts of technology cost, energy cost, refueling/charging availability, consumer travel pattern. On the supply side, the module simulates the technology supply by the auto-industry with the objective of maximizing industry profit under the constraints of government policies. Therefore, we apply different optimization methods to guarantee reaching the optimal automotive industry response each year up to 2050. From developing an upgraded differential evolution algorithm, to applying response surface methodology to simply the objective function, the goal is to enhance the optimization performance and efficiency compared to adopting the standard genetic algorithm. Moreover, we investigate TEAM’s robustness by applying a sensitivity analysis to find the key parameters of the model. Finally based on the key sensitive parameters that drive the automotive industry, we develop a neural network to learn the market penetration model and predict the market shares in a competitive time by bypassing the total cost of ownership analysis and profit optimization. The central motivating hypothesis of this thesis is that modern optimization and modeling methods can be applied to obtain a computationally-efficient, industry-relevant model to predict optimal market sales shares for light-duty vehicle technologies. In fact, developing a robust market penetration model that is optimized using sophisticated methods is a crucial tool to automotive companies, as it quantifies consumer’s behavior and delivers the optimal way to maximize their profits by highlighting the vehicles technologies that they could invest in. In this work, we prove that TEAM reaches the global solution to optimize not only the industry profits but also the alternative fuels optimized blends such as synthetic fuels. The time complexity of the model has been substantially improved to decrease from hours using the genetic algorithm, to minutes using differential evolution, to milliseconds using neural network.
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Title: Developing Advanced Materials for Carbon Dioxide Electroreduction to Value-Added Chemicals and Fuels
Creator: Esmaeilirad, Mohammadreza
Date: 2023
Description: Developing highly efficient electrocatalysts for the carbon dioxide reductionreaction (CO2RR) to value-added fuels and chemicals offers a...
Show moreDeveloping highly efficient electrocatalysts for the carbon dioxide reductionreaction (CO2RR) to value-added fuels and chemicals offers a feasible pathway for renewable energy storage and could help mitigate the ever-increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from human activities. Different catalysts are known to catalyze CO2RR in aqueous solutions. Most known catalysts are only capable of transferring 2 electrons with needed protons to CO2 producing either carbon monoxide (CO) or formic acid (HCOOH). Copper (Cu) is the only electrocatalytic material that converts CO2 into different types of hydrocarbon products. Additionally, owing to Cu’s natural abundance and low cost, it has been intensively studied for CO2RR for decades. However, the required high input energy (overpotential), low product selectivity towards valuable fuel products, and the lack of long-term stability remain major challenges for Cu-based catalysts. This work aims to develop new materials that produce hydrocarbons at lower overpotentials with higher rates and greater selectivity than current copper catalysts. By implementing a process referred to as the electrocatalyst discovery cycle iterations between predications, catalyst testing, and active site characterization allow for the rational design and discovery of new and improved electrocatalysts for CO2RR. This methodology led to the discovery of different heteroatomic catalysts as low overpotential catalysts for electroreduction of CO2 high energy density hydrocarbon products.
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