Research targets for upcycling of CO2 to formate and carbon monoxide with paired electrolysis

Electrochemical CO2 reduction to formate and CO holds potential of upcycling waste into useful chemicals and has industrial viability. Goal of this review is to help align research targets for fundamental research with requirements for industrial viability to accelerate adoption by the industry. We identify which Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) are influential on manufacturing costs for CO and formate and we propose research targets for these KPI's and compare these research targets with the state of the art for CO production and formate production. Some influential KPI's, such as current density, are well addressed in the state of the art. Other KPI's, such as product purity, are commonly insufficiently addressed. To further improve process economics, the oxidation of water at the anode can be replaced by a more valuable reaction. We explain which innovations in anodes material and in bipolar membranes (BPM's) can enable paired electrolysis with CO2 reduction. © 2022 Elsevier B.V.