Pathways to Enhance Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction Identified Through Multi-Scale Modeling Pathways to Enhance Electrochemical CO₂ Reduction Identified Through Multi-Scale Modeling

Multi-physical transport processes on multiple scales are occurring in electrochemical devices and components for CO₂ electroreduction. These coupled transport processes determine the local environment in the catalyst layer and subsequently also the reaction rates at the catalytic sites. Experiments have difficulties to provide locally resolved information within a working cell, therefore making it difficult to provide diagnostic insight that can improve understanding and lead to optimized design and operation. I will show how coupled multi-physics modelling approaches on multiple scales can provide locally resolved insights, starting from the double layer [1], the pore-scale [2], all the way to the volume-averaged continuum-scale. On the pore-scale specifically, I will discuss a coupled experimental-computational approach that utilizes nano-tomography of catalyst layers and allows with subsequent pore-level simulations to model the exact and complex mesostructured of real catalysts [3]. I will end with an excursion to solar-driven CO₂ electroreduction and show why and how concentrated radiation can be used to drive processes at industrially relevant current densities [4].

[1] J. Gu, S. Liu, W. Ni, W. Ren, S. Haussener, X. Hu, Nature Catalysis, 2022, 5, 268-276.

[2] S. Suter. S. Haussener, Energy Environmental Science, 2019, 5, 1668-1678.

[3] S. Suter, M. Cantoni, Y.K. Gaudy, S. Pokrant, S. Haussener, Sustainable Energy & Fuels, 2018, 2, 2661-2673.

[4] E. Boutin, M. Patel, E. Kecsenovity, S. Suter, C. Janaky, S. Haussener, Adv. Energy Materials, 2022, 12, 2200585.

Short Biography:

Sophia Haussener is an Associate Professor heading the Laboratory of Renewable Energy Science and Engineering at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). She received her PhD (2010) in Mechanical Engineering from ETH Zurich. Between 2011 and 2012, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Joint Center of Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) and the Energy Environmental Technology Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). She is the vice president of EPFL’s research award commission (since 2021). She has published over 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings, and 2 books. She has been awarded the ETH medal (2011), the Dimitris N. Chorafas Foundation award (2011), the ABB Forschungspreis (2012), the Prix Zonta (2015), the Global Change Award (2017), and the Raymond Viskanta Award on Radiative Transfer (2019), and is a recipient of the Starting Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (2014). She is a co-founder of the startup SoHHytec aiming at commercializing photoelectrochemical hydrogen production. She is the former chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Solar Energy Division, a former Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Helmholtz Zentrum, and a member of the scientific board of the Liquid Sunlight Alliance.

Her current research is focused on providing design guidelines for thermal, thermochemical, and photoelectrochemical energy conversion reactors through multi-physics modeling and demonstrations. Her research interests include: thermal sciences, fluid dynamics, charge transfer, electro-magnetism, and thermo/electro/photochemistry in complex multi-phase media on multiple scales.