Hydrogenation of CO₂ to value-added products - A review and potential future developments

Fossil fuel depletion, global warming, climate change, and steep hikes in the price of fuels are driving scientists to investigate on commercial and environmentally friendly fuels. The process of CO₂ conversion to value-added products has been considered as a possible remedy to fulfill the requirements. The present review paper comprehensively discusses two different processes, namely hydrocarbon and methanol synthesis which are extensively used to convert CO₂ to value-added products. Reaction mechanisms as well as the effects of catalyst, reactor type and operating conditions on product efficiency enhancement of each process are reviewed. Furthermore a brief overview on the reactor types as the most effective component of the theoretical and experimental reported results on the process improvement is given. All the information is tabulated in order to make the gathered information easily conclusive. Finally, by taking the available information into account the best reactor configuration which is adjustable to reaction mechanism is proposed.