Chemical Valorization of CO2

Abstract

The growing CO2 atmospheric concentrations, linked with detrimental global warming, and the declining fossil resources derived from power generation, transportation and industries are of great environmental and sustainability concerns. Chemical valorization of CO2 into fuels, chemicals, polymers and construction materials is a promising tool to reduce fossil fuel depletion and greenhouse gas emissions, contribute to decarbonization of energy, transport and industrial sectors and to fulfill climate goals, while storing renewable energy and generating revenue. Chemical valorization of CO2 has the potential to generate products with similar or improved quality and with smaller carbon and water footprints, energy consumption and production costs than traditionally produced counterparts. However, the deployment of these CO2-based products is limited to about 10 million tons of CO2 per year, due to the early stage of development of some valorization routes, the need for low-carbon, cheap and renewable energy and hydrogen and the fulfillment of quality standards and regulations. This chapter focuses on valorization technologies approaching commercialization, consuming huge amounts of CO2 and integrating renewable energy, and reviews the maturity, the scaling-up potential, the climatic, economic and environmental benefits and the bottlenecks for commercialization of the technologies and the market size and price of the synthesized products.