Current technology development for CO₂ utilization into solar fuels and chemicals: A review

The continuous consumption of fossil fuels causes two important impediments including emission of large concentrations of CO₂ resulting in global warming and alarming utilization of energy assets. The conversion of greenhouse gas CO₂ into solar fuels can be an expedient accomplishment for the solution of both problems, all together. CO₂ reutilization into valuable fuels and chemicals is a great challenge of the current century. Owing to limitations in traditional approaches, there have been developed many novel technologies such as photochemical, biochemical, electrochemical, plasma-chemical and solar thermochemical. They are currently being used for CO₂ capture, sequestration, and utilization to transform CO₂ into valuable products such as syngas, methane, methanol, formic acid, as well as fossil fuel consumption reduction. This review summarizes different traditional and novel thermal technologies used in CO₂ conversion with detailed information about their working principle, types, currently adopted methods, developments, conversion rates, products formed, catalysts and operating conditions. Moreover, a comparison of these novel technologies in terms of distinctive key features such as conversion rate, yield, use of earth metals, renewable energy, investment, and operating cost has been provided in order to have a useful review for future research direction.