Thermochemical CO₂ Hydrogenation to Single Carbon Products: Scientific and Technological Challenges

Abstract

Catalytic conversion of CO 2 to chemicals and fuels is a "two birds, one stone" approach toward solving the climate change problem and energy demand−supply deficit in the modern world. Recent advances in mechanistic insights and design of suitable catalysts for direct thermocatalytic hydrogenation of CO 2 to C1 products are thoroughly discussed in this Review. The role of catalyst composition and process conditions in determining the selective pathways to various products like carbon monoxide, methanol, methane, and dimethyl ether has been overviewed in light of thermodynamic and kinetic considerations. After extensive elaboration of the main motivation of the reaction pathways, catalytic roles, and reaction thermodynamics, we summarize the most important macroscopic aspects of CO 2 hydrogenation technology development, which include reactor innovations, industrial status of the technology, life cycle assessment and technoeconomic analysis. Finally, a critical perspective on the future challenges and opportunities in both the core fronts and overall technology development is provided.

A Review of The Methanol Economy: The Fuel Cell Route

“…Some of the new generation commercial catalysts with high activity and stability for application in the CTM process, include, MK-151(Topsoe), MegaMax 800 (Clariant) and KATALCO 51-100 (Johnson Matthey) [30]. However, further investigations of current catalysts and development of novel catalysts are still required for a large-scale commercialization of CTM processes [62].…”

Operando Modeling of Multicomponent Reactive Solutions in Homogeneous Catalysis: from Non‐standard Free Energies to Reaction Network Control

“…To illustrate this, let us consider a representative example of homogeneously catalyzed CO 2 hydrogenation to formats as a model chemical conversion process. Reductive transformation of carbon dioxide attracts particular attention of the scientific community as it provides a method to store renewable energy in chemical bonds . Reversible catalytic CO 2 hydrogenation in the liquid phase (Figure a) is the key element of a practical reversible H 2 storage technology .…”

“…Reductive transformation of carbon dioxide attracts particular attention of the scientific community as it provides a method to store renewable energy in chemical bonds. [11][12][13] Reversible catalytic CO 2 hydrogenation [14] in the liquid phase (Figure 1a) is the key element of a practical reversible H 2 storage technology. [15,16] The practical applicability of a catalyst is defined by both its activity and stability under the conditions of the catalytic reaction.…”

Ni–Zn–Al-Based Oxide/Spinel Nanostructures for High Performance, Methane-Selective CO2 Hydrogenation Reactions

“…The catalytic conversion of CO 2 is desirable strategy to not only reduce the CO 2 emission but also to produce useful chemicals/fuels [1,2]. Depending upon the catalysts used, different kinds of products were obtained such as CO via reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction, methane (Sabatier reaction) and methanol [3][4][5].…”