Electrolytic reduction of carbon dioxide to formate using low over-voltages.

[NNadir]

4. It will not make sense to capture CO2 merely...

...to put in a CO2 dump. Such a dump will likely be temporary and extremely dangerous - as we found out in the Lake Nyos event.

There would also be no economic advantage.

This scheme should it be industrialized, is effectively a CO2 splitting scheme. Formic acid is the hydrate of carbon monoxide.

In general I'm not fond of electrolytic schemes except in metal processing. Thermochemical carbon dioxide splitting is likely to be far more efficient.

I posted this as a point of general interest but view it at best as a scheme for perhaps putting spinning reserve to use while it runs in support of the grid.