Development of electrocatalysts and membranes for the cogeneration of electricity and valuable chemicals
A lot of economically valuable chemicals are obtained in industry through oxidation and reduction reactions. While many of these processes are highly exothermic, liberating energy as heat, they generally do not reach high energy efficiencies because most of this liberated energy cannot be recovered efficiently. Fuel cells offer the possibility to produce these chemicals through electrochemical reactions while converting the released energy into electricity, thus offering a clear advantage over the conventional production process.