Perspectives on Advancing Sustainable CO₂ Conversion Processes: Trinomial Technology, Environment, and Economy

CO₂ can be converted into value-added products such as fuels, chemicals, and building materials, adding an economic incentive for CO₂ capture and green economy, while also reducing the environmental footprint of hard-to-abate industries such as aviation, construction, and metallurgy. Nonetheless, most available technologies for direct CO₂ conversion, while promising, are still in early development stages, facing technical and economic challenges for their scale-up, questioning their viability to truly instill a timely impact on global CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, a clear environmental benefit should be obtained for the new processes versus the traditional ones they are replacing in the market. In this perspective, we examine the range of available technologies for direct CO₂ conversion using thermal, electrical, and photochemical routes and mineralization including the advancements in their role in synthesizing a range of resulting products from methanol, methane, carbon monoxide, and solid carbonates. We offer insights on the trends in current research and development and the required direction to expedite the technological readiness of attractive CO₂ conversion technologies in terms of catalytic material and reactor design. We also highlight the important role of modeling (molecular and process levels) as an enabling tool to deploy these technologies at the commercial scale originating from understanding their behavior at the molecular level. Lastly, we highlight the significance of carrying out reliable life cycle analysis in identifying the environmental hotspots as well as gaps in the technology that allows improving their environmental footprint and economic attractiveness.