Current and future perspectives on catalytic-based integrated carbon capture and utilization

There exist several well-known methods with varying maturity for capturing carbon dioxide from emission sources of different concentrations, including absorption, adsorption, cryogenics and membrane separation, among others. The capture and separation steps can produce almost pure CO₂, but at substantial cost for being conditioned for transport and final utilization, with high economical risks to be considered. A possible way for the elimination of this conditioning and cost is direct CO₂ utilization, whether on-site in a further process but within the same plant, or in-situ, coupling both capture and conversion in the same unit. This approach is usually called integrated carbon capture and utilization (ICCU) or integrated carbon capture and conversion (ICCC), and has lately started receiving considerable attention in many circles. As CO₂ is already industrially employed in other sectors, such as food preservation, water treatment and conversion to high added-value chemicals and fuels such as methanol, methane, etc., among others, it is of great interest to explore the global ICCC approach. Catalytic-based processes play a key role in CO₂ conversion, and different technologies are gaining great attention from both academia and industry. However, the ‘big picture of ICCU’ and in which technology the efforts should focus on at large scale is still unclear. This review analyzes some promising concepts of ICCU specifically on CO₂ catalytic conversion, highlighting their current commercial relevance as well as challenges that have to be faced today and in the next future.