High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide (ERC) is the conversion of carbon dioxide to more reduced chemical species using electricity as the energy source. The first examples of electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide are from the 19th century, when carbon dioxide was reduced to formic acid using a zinc cathode. Research in the space intensified in the 1980s following the oil embargoes of the 1970s. A large body of literature on the subject has developed. Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is currently considered a possible means of producing chemicals or fuels from carbon dioxide (CO2), making it a feedstock for the chemical industry.