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Greenhouse gases mitigation is one of most important challenges facing societies nowadays. Therefore, the way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be using carbon free sources that do not generate extra CO 2 to the atmosphere. However, there is a great potential in energy carriers and other materials from CO 2 , with many challenges to overcome. It has been suggested that the reduction of CO 2 and conversion to renewable fuels and valuable chemicals may be considered as a promising solution to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. This chapter discusses the recent developments and remaining challenges of CO 2 utilization for the efficient production of methanol. This includes novel technologies, approaches, and current barriers for the conversion of CO 2 to methanol through heterogeneous catalysis, homogenous catalysis, electrochemical, photochemical, and photoelectrochemical conversion, which will contribute to the economic growth and mitigate the hazardous emissions for cleaner environment. A review of various stateof-the-art technologies for CO 2 conversion to methanol was carried out aiming to establish the advances in this area and present an overview of the recent research trend for future development of new ideas for CO 2 reduction into methanol in a large scale.

Abstract

The rising atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide is one of the most urgent challenges facing societies nowadays. There is also great potential in energy carriers and other materials from CO 2 , with many challenges to overcome. The way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions should be using carbon free sources that do not generate carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. This article reviews recent developments, remaining challenges and novel approaches of CO 2 reduction for the efficient and sustainable production of fuels and valuable chemicals. It has been suggested that the CO 2 reduction and conversion may provide promising solutions for energy resource scarcity as well as reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Hence, this paper discusses novel technologies and approaches to reduce carbon dioxide to produce energy and chemicals through heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis, which will contribute to the economic growth and mitigate the hazardous emissions for cleaner environment. A review of the state-of-the-art of various technologies for carbon dioxide reduction was carried out aiming to demonstrate the advances in this area and provide an overview of the research trend for future development of new ideas for CO 2 reduction in a large scale.

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Direct methanol fuel cell has attracted worldwide attention as a promising alternative clean energy source due to growing environmental problems. A number of scientific groups are working to develop the fuel cells and make it a viable clean energy option. For fuel cells to be a feasible and economic viable innovation in the materials development, such as new electrocatalyst and polymer electrolyte membranes are required. Significant advancements in materials developments are required for fuel cells to be feasible for a wide range of portable, automotive and stationary applications. For DMFC, there are some challenges that need to be addressed before this technology become competitive, for example- slow kinetics of methanol oxidation, high methanol permeation resulting drop in fuel cell performance and the high cost of the catalyst. In the present work we focus on the electrocatalyst materials development for methanol electro-oxidation on the anode surface of DMFC. Platinum (Pt) and/or copper (Cu) based multi composition low cost electro-catalyst have been synthesized and characterized by impregnating onto the carbon nano-tubes (CNT) composites. These nanocomposite electrocatalyst materials have been characterized for their morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), structure by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), element mapping and other chemical and thermal properties by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). The results of the characterization confirmed successful formation of the desired electrocatalyst material. The electrochemical activity of these electro-catalysts for methanol electro-oxidation have been studied by cyclic voltametry (CV) and chronoamperometery (CA) at various concentrations of methanol and current density. The characterization and electrochemical activity tests showed good performance for the electro-oxidation of methanol for DMFCs. The present study opened up new avenues for developing lower cost Pt-based catalysts with better performance. These nanomaterials have potential to be used as electrocatalyst for DMFC applications. Keywords: Electrocatalyst, nanocomposite;direct methanol fuel cells, electro-oxidation. Acknowledgements: This publication was supported by Qatar university Internal Grant No. QUUG-CAM-15\16-2. The findings achieved herein are solely the responsibility of the author[s].