Molten salt CO2 capture and electrolysis: Effects of additives and gas impurities

This thesis reports the molten salt CO2 electrolysis to simultaneously capture and convert CO2. First, the literature review is done to overview the key parameters of the system and observe the research gaps. Later, proper operating factors (temperature and voltage) and the proper salt combination were determined to serve as the baseline and blank standards. Based on the previous findings, additives were screened from CaO, MnO2, ZnO, and Zn. It was found that 10 mol% Zn and ZnO have positive effects on carbon deposition rate (26% and 54% increase, respectively). Later, different concentrations of selected additives (MnO2, ZnO, and Zn) were tested to observe the concentration effects on electrolysis performance and carbon nanostructures. To fill the research gap, gas impurities (O2 and CO) were also tested to and found that their negative effects were more obvious at lower temperatures, with lower concentrations of these gases having a more negative impact.