About this Research Topic

Background

The increasing atmospheric CO2 concentration and consequent climate impact have led to considerable advances in the field of CO2 capture and storage technologies, which generate high amounts of compressed and relatively pure CO2 ready to be stored into geological formations. An alternative strategy that is currently attracting high interest from both the scientific and industry sectors is the valorization of CO2 through its utilization as a carbon source (as an alternative to fossil fuels) contributing to the desired transition from a linear to a circular economy. In fact, CO2 is an abundant, nontoxic, and renewable C1 building block, safer than most of the substances commonly used in industrial processes, and does not compete with food production. There are two main types of CO2 utilization pathways: i) one is when the oxidation state of carbon stays the same, which is the case for example of carbamates, inorganic and organic carbonates, and polycarbonates; ii) the other class of products comprises of energy vectors that are obtained from the reduction of CO2 meaning that the oxidation state of the carbon changes during the process, which is the case of methane, methanol, and formic acid. Besides providing an opportunity to partially decarbonize the chemicals and materials sector, CO2 utilization is also tackling the generation of fuels. More recently it has been proposed to be used as a strategy to chemically store renewable energy, which would allow it to be traded at a global scale using existing infrastructures, which may well be the key game changer needed to meet the global sustainable development goals.

CO2 utilization as a sustainable and secure supply of carbon is not new, but has recently gained a renewed interest which is clearly evident from the huge number of scientific papers that is possible to find on the subject. It explores CO2 as a C1 building block in alternative to fossil-based resources, bringing carbon back into the value chain and therefore contributing to a circular economy. Due to CO2 high thermodynamic and kinetic stability, the development of highly active catalysts and the implementation of process intensification strategies is of crucial importance and plays a decisive role in both the economic and environmental viability of the technology. In this context, several studies have been published on life cycle assessment as well as on techno-economic analysis with contradictory conclusions. At the same time on the ground, this field is going through a very fast-evolving scenario, with several industrial initiatives taking place mainly on pilot scales or demonstration units all over Europe. The main questions this topic wants to answer are: i) What are the current strategies being adopted by the industry to overcome main CO2 utilization limitations? ii) How will CO2 utilization address global sustainability development goals? and iii) what are the emerging research trends that will define the role of CO2 on the future of the global economy?

CO2 utilization is a very active field of research that aims to recycle CO2 and use it as a carbon source in alternative to fossil-based sources for the production of chemicals, materials and fuels. All manuscripts that fall on the scope of CO2 utilization technologies including areas related to the process design, process optimization and intensification, process scale-up, techno-economic assessment, and life cycle analysis are highly encouraged to be submitted to this Research Topic.

This Research Topic will present and discuss current industrial approaches, and emerging research trends and focus on the main challenges this field needs to address from the global sustainability perspective. This collection welcomes original research, opinions, perspectives, and reviews on the following topics:

1. Main trends on CO2 utilization as a carbon source, their expected impact, and frontiers to contribute to global sustainability
2. Improved methodologies developed to access techno-economic viability of CO2 technologies and to quantify the life-cycle climate benefits
3. Main strategies the industry is using to overcome CO2 utilization technical barriers, bottlenecks, and recognize possible and actual weaknesses that will decide which technology will succeed in a competitive market
4. Opportunities for future research that are relevant to implementing emerging technologies
5. Relevant existing and the need for new policies to support CO2 utilization along the value chain

Keywords: resource efficiency, energy efficiency, global, sustainable production, materials, fuels, chemical production, carbon dioxide, CO2, Energy storage, materials and fuels

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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