Rising CO2 levels contribute to accelerated global warming and finding ways to combat this rise is becoming increasingly important. One such way to accomplish this would be to capture CO2 and use the captured CO2 as a reactant to create renewable value-added products, in what is known as integrated carbon capture and utilization (ICCU). However, ICCU technologies have primarily been studied with homogenous, noble-metal complexes, which limits their industrial application. Herein, we report the hydrogenative conversion of captured CO2 to methanol and methane utilizing earth-abundant metal-based heterogeneous catalysts. First, CO2, in the presence of metal hydroxides, can be captured in the form of bicarbonate and carbonate salts. Then these bicarbonate and carbonate salts can be converted to methanol or methane in the presence of hydrogen depending on the catalyst. These conversions take place at relatively low temperatures, 200°C, which is below the temperature of decomposition of carbonate salts, with the product yields upwards of 100%. This suggests that the carbonate salt is directly interacting with the heterogeneous catalysts to perform the hydrogenative conversion. Biomass that contains high quantities of calcium carbonate, such as eggshells and seashells, has also been utilized for the conversion to methanol and methane. The metal hydroxide is also reformed during the reaction allowing the base to be utilized for subsequent CO2 capture and conversion process.

Integrated carbon dioxide capture and conversion to methanol and methane utilizing earth-abundant heterogenous catalysts

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