Electrochemical conversion of CO2 to HCOOH at tin cathode in a pressurized undivided filter-press cell

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formic acid was performed for the first time in a pressurized filter-press cell with a continuous recirculation of the electrolytic solution (0.9 L) at a tin cathode. It was shown that the performances of the system are comparable or slightly better than that of a batch system with a smaller volume (0.05 L). The selection of proper values of both current density and CO2 pressure allowed to achieve quite high values of faradaic efficiencies. Long-time electrolyses have shown that the system is stable and that it can allow to generate quite high concentrations of HCOOH (about 0.4 M).