Carbon Dioxide Conversion to Methanol: Opportunities and Fundamental Challenges

Abstract

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.

Recent Developments in the Modelling of Heterogeneous Catalysts for CO2 Conversion to Chemicals

“…Timeline for the number of articles published on CO 2 hydrogenation, electrochemical and photochemical reduction using the SCI-Expanded search platform. [27,38] CO 2 + 4H 2 * * CH 4 + 2H 2 O(g) À 164.9 À 113.5 Ru-, Fe-, Ni-, Co-, Mo-based catalysts [39,40] CO 2 + 3H 2 * * CH 3 OH + H 2 O(l) À 131.0 À 9.0 Cu-and Cu/ZnO-based catalysts, Pd-, based catalysts [41,42] CO 2 + H 2 * * HCOOH(l) À 31.2 33.0 Ru-, Rh-, Ir-, Pd-based catalysts [40] nCO 2 + 3nH 2 * * C n H 2n + 2nH 2 O À 128 [19] melting temperature (> 3300 K), high hardness (> 2000 kg/ mm 2 ) and high tensile strength (> 300 GPa) and show catalytic activity similar to activity of noble metals. [45,46,50] Metal-nitrides are characterized by two different effects: ligand effect and ensemble effect.…”

A Review on the Design and Performance of Enzyme-Aided Catalysis of Carbon Dioxide in Membrane, Electrochemical Cell and Photocatalytic Reactors

“…[18]. In past decades, CO 2 conversion in electrochemical cells has only been applied on a laboratory scale and has not yet been successfully incorporated into industrial processes [19]. It is reported that the large overpotential and the low current density and stability have made it difficult to satisfy commercial demands [20].…”

“…Further studies are still needed to determine an economical electrode that could provide high electrical conductivity and stability for catalyzing NADH regeneration and CO 2 reduction [19]. It has been reported that utilizing graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets as an electrocatalyst for CO 2 reduction could increase the number of CO 2 adsorption sites and further enhance electrocatalytic productivity.…”

Gas Fermentation Expands the Scope of a Process Network for Material Conversion

“…Here, only processes linked to fermentative conversion routes are mentioned. Excess electricity can be used to electrochemically convert CO 2 into methanol or formate (Fig. , K), which then can be used as a substrate for fermentation (Fig.…”

“…The liquid C1‐compounds, methanol and formate, can be produced from CO 2 by using excess electricity (Fig. , K) . Furthermore, as liquids, both C1‐compounds are storable and can decouple the availability of excess energy from subsequent processes such as fermentation .…”