Round-Robin Testing for CO2 Electrolysis. What is mightier: the cell or the operational conditions?

CO2 electrolysis is a promising pathway to produce diverse fuels and chemicals from renewable electricity.

Both on the fundamental research level and on TRL levels around 4- 6 strong activities from different stakeholders can be observed.

This includes universities, start-ups such as eChemicles (applicant) and corporates such as TotalEnergies or Siemens Energy. However, comparability of performances is difficult due to the lack of standardized test protocols.

On the one hand, to push the technology to the next maturity level (TRL 7-8), substantial investments are needed on the individual project level due to high associated CAPEX costs. On the other hand, the lack of thorough benchmarking and validated performances hampers further investments.

The development and widespread publication of a standardized and easily applicable test protocol is of utmost importance to support the scaling-up of CO2 electrolysis.