Carbon Dioxide Recycling: Emerging Large-Scale Technologies with Industrial Potential

• Published in: ChemSusChem Vol. 4; no. 9; pp. 1194 - 1215
• Main Authors: Quadrelli, Elsje Alessandra, Centi, Gabriele, Duplan, Jean-Luc, Perathoner, Siglinda
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 19.09.2011; WILEY‐VCH Verlag
• Subjects: Animals; carbon dioxide; Carbon Dioxide - chemistry; Carbon Dioxide - isolation & purification; Carbon Dioxide - metabolism; carboxylation; Humans; industrial chemistry; Industry - methods; Minerals - chemistry; Organic Chemicals - chemistry; Oxidation-Reduction; Recycling - methods; reduction; sustainable chemistry
• ISSN: 1864-5631; 1864-564X; 1864-564X
• DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201100473

This Review introduces this special issue of ChemSusChem dedicated to CO2 recycling. Its aim is to offer an up‐to‐date overview of CO2 chemical utilization (inorganic mineralization, organic carboxylation, reduction reactions, and biochemical conversion), as a continuation and extension of earlier books and reviews on this topic, but with a specific focus on large‐volume routes and projects/pilot plants that are currently emerging at (pre‐)industrial level. The Review also highlights how some of these routes will offer a valuable opportunity to introduce renewable energy into the existing energy and chemical infrastructure (i.e., “drop‐in” renewable energy) by synthesis of chemicals from CO2 that are easy to transport and store. CO2 conversion therefore has the potential to become a key pillar of the sustainable and resource‐efficient production of chemicals and energy from renewables. Emerging large‐scale CO2 conversion routes, with an overview of projects and pilot plants that are currently (nearly) at an industrial level are the subject of this Review. These include inorganic mineralization, organic carboxylation, reduction, and biochemical conversion. These developments show the potential of CO2 as a green molecule that enables the sustainable and resource‐efficient production of chemicals and energy