S. Fernandes, InêsAntunes, DuarteMartins, RodrigoMendes, Manuel J.Reis-Machado, Ana S.2024-08-022024-08-022024-02-292405-8440PURE: 94068448PURE UUID: 1917531e-16af-4b31-bdfc-9e1da410cabeScopus: 85186220209WOS: 001193986700001PubMed: 38420411PubMedCentral: PMC10901033ORCID: /0000-0002-7374-0726/work/164847571http://hdl.handle.net/10362/170276Funding Information: The work was also supported by the European project SYNERGY (H2020-WIDESPREAD-2020-5, CSA, Grant No. 952169) and M-ECO2 – Industrial cluster for advanced biofuel production, Ref. C644930471-00000041, co-financed by PRR – Recovery and Resilience Plan of the European Union (Next Generation EU). Publisher Copyright: © 2024The reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is crucial to reduce the atmospheric greenhouse effect, fighting climate change and global warming. Electrochemical CO2 reduction is one of the most promising carbon capture and utilization technologies, that can be powered by solar energy and used to make added-value chemicals and green fuels, providing grid-stability, energy security, and environmental benefits. A two-dimensional finite-elements model for porous electrodes was developed and validated against experimental data, allowing the design and performance improvement of a porous zinc cathode morphology and its operational conditions for an electrolyzer producing syngas via the co-electrolysis of CO2 and water. Porosity, pore length, fiber geometric shape, inlet pressure, system temperature, and catholyte flow rate were explored, and these parameters were thoroughly tuned by using the smart-search Nelder-Mead's multi-parameter optimization algorithm to achieve pronouncedly higher, industrial-relevant current density values than those previously reported, up to 263.6 mA/cm2 at an applied potential of −1.1 V vs. RHE.167728146engElectrochemical CO reductionFinite-elements modelingPorous electrodesRenewable fuelsGeneralSDG 7 - Affordable and Clean EnergySDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and InfrastructureSDG 13 - Climate Actionjournal article10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e26442https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85186220209