CO2 methanation over heterogeneous catalysts: recent progress and future prospects

Abstract

Catalytic approaches for CO₂ fixation can play an important role, because CO₂ can be artificially converted into reusable chemicals. Among the catalytic reactions of CO₂, hydrogenation of CO₂, the so-called methanation reaction, is a suitable technique for the fixation of CO_2. This technique can be used to convert exhausted CO₂ into methane (CH₄), which can be recycled for use as a fuel or a chemical as well as by contributing to the reduction of CO₂ emissions. Heterogeneous catalysts have been used to hydrogenate CO₂ to methane. Heterogeneous catalysts are preferable to homogenous catalysts in terms of stability, separation, handling, and reuse, which reflects in lower costs for large-scale production. Significant progress has been made in this direction, the exploitation of novel heterogeneous catalysts. In this review, we discussed recent developments in this area, with emphases on catalytic reactivity and its physicochemical properties and reaction mechanism. Apart from materials aspects and catalytic performance, we also discuss fundamental strategies for the rational design of materials for effective transformation of CO₂ to methane with the help of H₂ and power sources.