Emerging Electrochemical Processes for Carbon Capture and Storage - Dr. Mim Rahimi

Abstract - Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is essential if global warming mitigation scenarios are to be met. However, today's maturing thermochemical capture technologies have exceedingly high energy requirements and rigid form factors that restrict their versatility and limit scale. Using renewable electricity, rather than heat, as the energy input to drive CO2 separations provides a compelling alternative to surpass these limitations. Although electrochemical technologies have been extensively developed for energy storage and CO2 utilization processes, the potential for more expansive intersection of electrochemistry with CCS is only recently receiving growing attention, with multiple scientific proofs-of-concept and a burgeoning pipeline with numerous concepts at various stages of technology readiness. In this presentation, I describe the emerging science and research progress underlying electrochemical CCS processes and assess their current maturity and trajectory. I also highlight emerging ideas that are ripe for continued research and development, which will allow the impact of electrochemical CCS to be properly assessed in coming years.

Biography - Dr. Rahimi is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering at the Cullen College of
Engineering at the University of Houston (UH). He also holds an affiliate appointment with the
Materials Science and Engineering Program. Before joining UH, Dr. Rahimi was a postdoctoral
associate at the Department of Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) (2018–2021) working with Prof. Alan Hatton. Dr. Rahimi obtained his Ph.D. in chemical
engineering from Pennsylvania State University in 2017 under the supervision of Prof. Bruce
Logan. His research group at UH develops electrochemical processes for climate change
mitigation, including a wide range of technologies for carbon capture from air and point sources.