Editorial: From CO2 Emissions to Fuels and Chemicals: Current Development, Challenges and Perspectives

Abstract

Editorial on Research TopicFrom CO 2 Emissions to Fuels and Chemicals: Current Development, Challenges and Perspectives Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is attracting considerable attention as a new way to reduce release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere while valorising CO 2 through the production of fuels and green chemical intermediates [1].Over the past decades, significant effort has been targeted at developing and demonstrating at large-scale CO 2 capture from power and industrial sources [2]. To accelerate deployment, further efforts are taking place to reduce energy penalties and costs of such a process, as well as scale-up promising solutions. However, one of the key hurdles for implementation remains the destination of these huge CO 2 streams. While CO 2 storage has been shown to be, by far, the main option to ensure permanent sequestration of the amount of CO 2 to be captured [3], integrating CO 2 capture and storage can be challenging, especially in the near term, due to the distances between sources and sinks, the time required to develop such geological sinks, scale mismatches, etc. While it is expected to play a smaller role than CO 2 storage, CO 2 utilization remains an interesting sink for captured CO 2 as it creates opportunities for new revenue streams. Furthermore, CO 2 utilization can also be considered for small capture flowrates which make it an interesting solution in the case of early deployment. There are many potential routes to convert CO 2 into useful and, hopefully, more sustainable chemicals and fuels. For example, converting CO 2 into polyols could enable the production of more sustainable elastomers, fibers, flexible foam, adhesives, sealants, inks, paints, and coatings. Another route that can be considered is the conversion of CO 2 in valuable energy carriers such as methane, methanol, etc., which could be an attractive CCU solution while simultaneously addressing global warming and storing of hydrogen energy or renewable energy in commonly used dense energy carriers [4][5][6]. However, for all the routes and targeted products, it is important to ensure that CCU pathways deliver the three following aspects: 1) sustainable cradle-tograve solutions 2) economically viable solutions 3) scalable solutions.In this Research Topic, we aimed to make a picture of the knowledge of the current progress in the area of CO 2 capture and conversion techniques.In particular, Skoricova et al. proposed the techno-economic assessment of the sorptionenhanced dimethyl-ether (DME) synthesis process, as an innovative way for producing fuelgrade DME from carbon dioxide and green H 2 . They found that the production cost for DME was ∼€1.3 per kg for a relatively small-scale production plant of 23 kt/year. Although higher than the current market price for fossil-based DME, the results showed the potential of this route as more