Alcohol Production from Carbon Dioxide: Methanol as a Fuel and Chemical Feedstock

Summary

Production of renewable alcohols from air, water, and sunlight present an avenue to utilize captured carbon dioxide for the production of basic chemicals and store renewable energy in the chemical bonds of liquid fuels. Of the technologies that utilize CO₂ directly, CO₂ electrolysis, as well as CO₂ hydrogenation coupled with H₂O electrolysis, have the benefit of requiring only CO₂, H₂O, and renewable electricity as inputs with O₂ as a sole byproduct. Among alcohols, renewable methanol has seen the most development and analysis in the chemical industry because it is currently a syngas-derived product that could be adapted for direct CO₂ utilization. In this perspective, we compare renewably powered CO₂ electrolysis and CO₂ hydrogenation with the incumbent methanol production method from syngas from a cost and CO₂ life cycle perspective by analyzing recent literature to identify the research goals that enable further scale-up. Survey of the industry shows that CO₂ hydrogenation is among the closest CO₂ utilization technologies to large-scale deployment. We further discuss these CO₂ hydrogenation systems and the catalysts that drive them, with recommendations to drive further development and scale-up.