Introduction to CO₂ capture and conversion

Abstract

An introduction to the Nanoscale themed collection on CO₂ capture and conversion, featuring exciting research on advanced nanoscale materials and reactions.

Elena Shevchenko

Elena Shevchenko graduated from Belarusian State University (Belarus) in 1998 and completed her PhD in 2003 at University of Hamburg (Germany) with Prof. Horst Weller. In 2003–2005 she was a joint postdoctoral researcher between Columbia University (Prof. Stephen O'Brien) and the T. J. Watson Research Center (Prof. Chris Murray). In 2005–2007 she was a staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2007 she accepted a position as a staff scientist and joined the Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory. Her research interests include synthesis of nanoscale materials, design of multifunctional materials through self-assembly of nanoparticles and understanding the collective properties of such materials, in situ studies of nucleation and growth of multicomponent nanoparticles and nanoparticle superlattices and application of engineered nanostructures for energy storage and conversion.

A.-H. Alissa Park

Ah-Hyung (Alissa) Park is the Lenfest Earth Institute Professor of Climate Change and Department Chair of Earth and Environmental Engineering & Professor of Chemical Engineering at Columbia University. She is also the Director of the Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy at the Earth Institute. Her research focuses on sustainable energy and materials conversion pathways with an emphasis on integrated Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies addressing climate change. The Park group is also working on direct air capture of CO2 and negative emission technologies including BioEnergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and sustainable construction materials with low carbon intensity. Park has received a number of professional awards and honors including the Shell Thomas Baron Award in Fluid–Particle Systems at AIChE PTF (2022), the US C3E Research Award (2018), the PSRI Lectureship Award at AIChE PTF (2018), the ACS Energy and Fuels Division – Emerging Researcher Award (2018), the International Partnership Award for Young Scientists of Chinese Academy of Sciences (2018), the ACS WCC Rising Star Award (2017), and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2009). Park has led a number of global and national discussions on CCUS including the Mission Innovation Workshop on Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage in 2017 and the National Petroleum Council CCUS Report in 2019. She is currently a member of the National Academies Committee on Carbon Utilization Infrastructure, Markets, Research and Development. Park is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Shouheng Sun

Shouheng Sun received his PhD from Brown University in 1996 and joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center (Yorktown Heights, New York, USA) first as a postdoctoral fellow (1996–1998) and then as a research staff member (1998–2004). In 2005, he returned to Brown University as a tenured Associate Professor and he was promoted to full Professor in 2007. He is now the Vernon K. Krieble Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Engineering. His main research interests are in chemical synthesis and self-assembly of nanoparticles for catalytic, magnetic and biomedical applications. He served as a co-Director of Brown's Institute of Molecular and Nanoscale Innovation (2008–2020) and an Associate Editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry Journals Nanoscale and Nanoscale Adv. (2012–2021). He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2015.

Tierui Zhang

Dr Tierui Zhang is a full Professor at the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Director of the Key Laboratory of Photochemical Conversion and Optoelectronic Materials, CAS. He received his B.S. in Chemistry in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry in 2003 from Jilin University in China. After that, he did postdoctoral study at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (2003–2004), University of Alberta (2004–2005), University of Arkansas (2005–2007) and University of California-Riverside (2007–2009). His research activity focuses on catalyst nanomaterials for energy conversion such as photocatalytic solar fuels and value-added chemicals. He has published more than 300 peer reviewed journal articles in famous international journals such as Nat. Catal., Nat. Commun., Adv. Mater., Angew. Chem. and J. Am. Chem. Soc. These publications have earned him to date over 30 000 citations with an H-index of 96. He was named in the annual Highly Cited Researchers 2018–2021 List by Clarivate Analytics. Dr Zhang is an Associate Editor of Science Bulletin and also serves as an Editorial Board member for peer-reviewed journals including Adv. Energy Mater., Adv. Sci., Sci. Rep., ChemPhysChem, Mater. Chem. Front., Sol. RRL, Carbon Energy, Innovation and SmartMat. He is the recipient of a number of awards including an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, a Royal Society Newton Advanced Fellowship, the National High-Level Talents Special Support Program, and “Outstanding Young Scholars” of the National Science Fund. He was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in 2017.

Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases (hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, nitrogen trifluoride, perfluorocarbons) are entering the atmosphere in different quantities as a result of anthropogenic agricultural and industrial activities. All these gases can trap heat in the atmosphere resulting in global warming. Despite CO₂ having the lowest global warming potential (GWP),¹ a measure used to compare the abilities of different gases to trap heat in the atmosphere, it is the most significant greenhouse gas because of its longevity in the atmosphere and the enormous amount released into the atmosphere as a result of large scale burning of fossil fuels for energy and manufacturing uses. The potential impact from CO₂ emitted to the atmosphere could linger for much longer than that of other greenhouse gasses.²

The correlation between the increase in atmospheric CO₂ and higher surface temperature was first proposed by Arrhenius in 1896.^3,4 In 1938, Callendar demonstrated that the Earth's land surface was warming and attributed this phenomenon to the production of CO₂ by the combustion of fossil fuels.⁴ In 1971, Sawyer raised the concern that mass discharge of CO₂ from human activities could affect the heat balance of the Earth.⁵

There were about 34.9 Gt CO₂ emitted in 2021.⁶ The sustainable natural ways of sequestering CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis by plants, carbonate formation via CO₂ binding with minerals and adsorption of CO₂ by water can provide 37% CO₂ mitigation needed through 2030 for a >66% chance of holding warming to below 2 °C.⁷ While forestlands, swamps, soils and oceans can partially remedy the adverse effects of the released CO₂, they cannot combat climate change. In addition, the elevated levels of CO₂ can affect photosynthesis, carbon partitioning,⁸ and acidification of oceans.⁹ Therefore, deep decarbonization of the global economy is required for realization of both the 2.0 °C and 1.5 °C scenarios⁹ that restrict warming to 2.0 °C or 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels in order to mitigate the most dangerous and irreversible effects of climate change. This will require both climate policy reinforcements¹⁰ and innovation in materials design and technologies. However, since major changes in industrial practices and human behavior are not expected to occur in the next few decades,¹¹ scientific breakthroughs in CO₂ capture, conversion, storage, and utilization are the most promising game-changers that can alter the trajectory of rapid deterioration of the global environment.

One of the biggest obstacles in CO₂ mitigation is its capture from dilute sources.¹² CO₂ capture from dilute sources using advanced sorbents and its further conversion into carbon-based chemicals and fuels is recognized as a necessary step in addressing the continuous increase in CO₂ release into the atmosphere. Currently implemented large scale post-combustion amine scrubbing technology¹³ based on formation of carbonate salts with amines suffers from a few drawbacks such as high consumption of water, degradation of solvents and corrosion of the equipment. High surface area sorbents, including macromolecule structures, are currently being explored as a class of materials to replace amine scrubbing technology.

While CO₂ utilization as a feedstock can be seen as a cleaner alternative to hydrocarbons in industrial or chemical processes,¹⁴ its successful implementation at scale faces economic challenges. The issue is that CO₂ is a highly stable molecule that requires significant energy input for CO₂ valorization. For example, dry methane reforming, a conversion process of carbon dioxide and methane (the two main gases responsible for global warming) known since 1928,¹⁵ can play an important role in meeting global energy and climate goals.¹⁶ However, catalytic dry methane reforming takes place at very high temperatures and high pressures which challenges the stability of the catalysts. The water–gas shift¹⁷ and lower temperature Sabatier¹⁸ reactions producing carbon monoxide and methane (lower value), respectively, from the reaction of CO₂ with hydrogen have attracted renewed interest as possible processes for mitigation of CO₂.^17,19 These reactions also require high temperatures and restriction of the production of undesired products. More active, stable, and selective catalysts are needed to make CO₂ valorization through thermochemical routes become an economically suitable technology at scale.

Upgrading CO₂ to hydrocarbons using renewable energy sources is a promising solution for closing the carbon cycle. The chemical and physical principles of heterogeneous photocatalytic CO₂ transformation are rather well understood; however, significant improvements in the efficiency of optochemical engineering of CO₂ photocatalysis at scale are required.²⁰ Photoactive catalysts can also be designed from enzymes and bio-organisms such as algae and bacteria. Electrochemical transformation of CO₂ into hydrocarbons is another attractive carbon net-zero process as the electricity required to catalyze the process can be easily obtained from renewable sources.^21,22

Understanding CO₂ capture and conversion has been essential in our efforts to build a carbon neutral/negative society and to achieve energy sustainability. Recent studies have shown that CO₂ can be captured from industrial waste in more energy efficient manners and be converted more selectively via various catalytic processes to reusable chemicals and fuels. This themed issue invites experts in the field to publicize the latest state-of-the-art progress they have made in CO₂ capture and conversion. Their work focuses on selective CO₂ capture via carbonate formation, and CO₂/carbonate conversion via thermochemical, electrochemical, photochemical, and biological means to reusable forms of carbon. The collection also includes papers aiming to understand structure–property correlation to further improve the capture and conversion efficiencies. We hope you enjoy reading these articles and find them useful in your on-going endeavors in CO₂ capture and conversion.

References

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16. K. Wittich, M. Krämer, N. Bottke and S. A. Schunk, Catalytic Dry Reforming of Methane: Insights from Model Systems, ChemCatChem, 2020, 12(8), 2130–2147.
17. X. Chen, Y. Chen, C. Song, P. Ji, N. Wang, W. Wang and L. Cui, Recent Advances in Supported Metal Catalysts and Oxide Catalysts for the Reverse Water–Gas Shift Reaction, Front. Chem., 2020, 8, 709.
18. M. González-Castaño, B. Dorneanu and H. Arellano-García, The reverse water gas shift reaction: a process systems engineering perspective, React. Chem. Eng., 2021, 6(6), 954–976.
19. C. Vogt, M. Monai, G. J. Kramer and B. M. Weckhuysen, The renaissance of the Sabatier reaction and its applications on Earth and in space, Nat. Catal., 2019, 2(3), 188–197.
20. G. Ozin, Accelerated optochemical engineering solutions to CO₂ photocatalysis for a sustainable future, Matter, 2022, 5(9), 2594–2614.
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22. O. S. Bushuyev, P. De Luna, C. T. Dinh, L. Tao, G. Saur, J. van de Lagemaat, S. O. Kelley and E. H. Sargent, What Should We Make with CO₂ and How Can We Make It?, Joule, 2018, 2(5), 825–832.

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