IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v59y2016icp1269-1297.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into renewable fuel chemicals – The role of nanomaterials and the commercialization

Author

Listed:
  • Ganesh, Ibram

Abstract

The conversion of waste-stream greenhouse carbon dioxide (CO2) gas into value added chemicals and solar fuels using solar energy or electricity derived from sunlight is popularly known as artificial photosynthesis (AP). This latter process can indeed address the problems related to (i) the CO2 associated global warming, (ii) energy crisis due to the depletion of fossil fuels, and (iii) energy (and/or electricity) storage in high energy density chemical fuels. There are six types of processes (i.e., reactions) available to convert CO2 into value added chemicals; namely, (i) stoichiometric (also called as redox and neutralization reactions), (ii) thermo-chemical, (iii) biochemical (for e.g., algae production), (iv) photocatalytic, (v) photoelectrochemical (PEC) and (vi) electrochemical. Based on today׳s state-of-the-art on this subject, only electrochemical routes can be fully developed in such a way that the commercial plants can be established based on this process to produce renewable fuel chemicals from CO2, water and electricity (derived from sunlight or from any other renewable energy). Of late, the nano-structured materials (including nanoparticles, NPs) have found to play a significant role in improving the reaction efficiency and rate of reaction of this electrochemical conversion of CO2 into fuel chemicals. In this article, (i) the role of CO2 in dealing with the energy and global warming related problems, (ii) the fundamental understandings of electrochemical reduction of CO2 (ERC), (iii) the role of nanomaterials and reverse microbial fuel cells (R-MFC) on ERC, and (iv) the information about the already commercialized ERC processes have been presented and discussed while citing all the up-to-date relevant references.

Suggested Citation

  • Ganesh, Ibram, 2016. "Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into renewable fuel chemicals – The role of nanomaterials and the commercialization," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1269-1297.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:59:y:2016:i:c:p:1269-1297
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032116000563
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.026?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Budzianowski, Wojciech M., 2012. "Value-added carbon management technologies for low CO2 intensive carbon-based energy vectors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 280-297.
    2. Mata, Teresa M. & Martins, António A. & Caetano, Nidia. S., 2010. "Microalgae for biodiesel production and other applications: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 217-232, January.
    3. Budzianowski, Wojciech M., 2012. "Negative carbon intensity of renewable energy technologies involving biomass or carbon dioxide as inputs," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6507-6521.
    4. Brennan, Liam & Owende, Philip, 2010. "Biofuels from microalgae--A review of technologies for production, processing, and extractions of biofuels and co-products," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 557-577, February.
    5. Das, Sreejon & Wan Daud, W.M.A., 2014. "Photocatalytic CO2 transformation into fuel: A review on advances in photocatalyst and photoreactor," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 765-805.
    6. Graves, Christopher & Ebbesen, Sune D. & Mogensen, Mogens & Lackner, Klaus S., 2011. "Sustainable hydrocarbon fuels by recycling CO2 and H2O with renewable or nuclear energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 1-23, January.
    7. Frances C. Moore & Delavane B. Diaz, 2015. "Temperature impacts on economic growth warrant stringent mitigation policy," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(2), pages 127-131, February.
    8. Dohyung Kim & Joaquin Resasco & Yi Yu & Abdullah Mohamed Asiri & Peidong Yang, 2014. "Synergistic geometric and electronic effects for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide using gold–copper bimetallic nanoparticles," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, December.
    9. Ganesh, Ibram, 2014. "Conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol – a potential liquid fuel: Fundamental challenges and opportunities (a review)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 221-257.
    10. Gabriele Centi & Siglinda Perathoner, 2011. "CO 2 ‐based energy vectors for the storage of solar energy," Greenhouse Gases: Science and Technology, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 21-35, March.
    11. Grace, Andrews Nirmala & Choi, Song Yi & Vinoba, Mari & Bhagiyalakshmi, Margandan & Chu, Dae Hyun & Yoon, Yeoil & Nam, Sung Chan & Jeong, Soon Kwan, 2014. "Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide at low overpotential on a polyaniline/Cu2O nanocomposite based electrode," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 85-94.
    12. Ming, Tingzhen & de_Richter, Renaud & Liu, Wei & Caillol, Sylvain, 2014. "Fighting global warming by climate engineering: Is the Earth radiation management and the solar radiation management any option for fighting climate change?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 792-834.
    13. Leung, Dennis Y.C. & Caramanna, Giorgio & Maroto-Valer, M. Mercedes, 2014. "An overview of current status of carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 426-443.
    14. Zhen, Xudong & Wang, Yang, 2015. "An overview of methanol as an internal combustion engine fuel," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 477-493.
    15. Frances C. Moore & Delavane B. Diaz, 2015. "Erratum: Temperature impacts on economic growth warrant stringent mitigation policy," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(3), pages 280-280, March.
    16. Ganesh, Ibram, 2015. "Solar fuels vis-à-vis electricity generation from sunlight: The current state-of-the-art (a review)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 904-932.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pribyl-Kranewitter, B. & Beard, A. & Gîjiu, C.L. & Dinculescu, D. & Schmidt, T.J., 2022. "Influence of low-temperature electrolyser design on economic and environmental potential of CO and HCOOH production: A techno-economic assessment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Budzianowski, Wojciech M. & Postawa, Karol, 2017. "Renewable energy from biogas with reduced carbon dioxide footprint: Implications of applying different plant configurations and operating pressures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 852-868.
    3. Yang, Zaoli & Ahmad, Salman & Bernardi, Andrea & Shang, Wen-long & Xuan, Jin & Xu, Bing, 2023. "Evaluating alternative low carbon fuel technologies using a stakeholder participation-based q-rung orthopair linguistic multi-criteria framework," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 332(C).
    4. He, Li & Du, Peng & Chen, Yizhong & Lu, Hongwei & Cheng, Xi & Chang, Bei & Wang, Zheng, 2017. "Advances in microbial fuel cells for wastewater treatment," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 388-403.
    5. Kong, Fanying & Ren, Hong-Yu & Pavlostathis, Spyros G. & Nan, Jun & Ren, Nan-Qi & Wang, Aijie, 2020. "Overview of value-added products bioelectrosynthesized from waste materials in microbial electrosynthesis systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ganesh, Ibram, 2015. "Solar fuels vis-à-vis electricity generation from sunlight: The current state-of-the-art (a review)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 904-932.
    2. Bergthorson, Jeffrey M. & Thomson, Murray J., 2015. "A review of the combustion and emissions properties of advanced transportation biofuels and their impact on existing and future engines," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 1393-1417.
    3. Azad, A.K. & Rasul, M.G. & Khan, M.M.K. & Sharma, Subhash C. & Hazrat, M.A., 2015. "Prospect of biofuels as an alternative transport fuel in Australia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 331-351.
    4. Bailera, Manuel & Lisbona, Pilar & Romeo, Luis M. & Espatolero, Sergio, 2017. "Power to Gas projects review: Lab, pilot and demo plants for storing renewable energy and CO2," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 292-312.
    5. Saeidi, Samrand & Najari, Sara & Fazlollahi, Farhad & Nikoo, Maryam Khoshtinat & Sefidkon, Fatemeh & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Baxter, Larry L., 2017. "Mechanisms and kinetics of CO2 hydrogenation to value-added products: A detailed review on current status and future trends," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 1292-1311.
    6. Budzianowski, Wojciech M. & Postawa, Karol, 2017. "Renewable energy from biogas with reduced carbon dioxide footprint: Implications of applying different plant configurations and operating pressures," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 852-868.
    7. Budzianowski, Wojciech M., 2012. "Value-added carbon management technologies for low CO2 intensive carbon-based energy vectors," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 280-297.
    8. Das, Sreejon & Wan Daud, W.M.A., 2014. "Photocatalytic CO2 transformation into fuel: A review on advances in photocatalyst and photoreactor," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 765-805.
    9. Budzianowski, Wojciech M., 2012. "Negative carbon intensity of renewable energy technologies involving biomass or carbon dioxide as inputs," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6507-6521.
    10. Samuel Simon Araya & Vincenzo Liso & Xiaoti Cui & Na Li & Jimin Zhu & Simon Lennart Sahlin & Søren Højgaard Jensen & Mads Pagh Nielsen & Søren Knudsen Kær, 2020. "A Review of The Methanol Economy: The Fuel Cell Route," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-32, January.
    11. Tiruwork B. Tibebu & Eric Hittinger & Qing Miao & Eric Williams, 2024. "Adoption Model Choice Affects the Optimal Subsidy for Residential Solar," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-19, February.
    12. Behnam Tabatabai & Afua Adusei & Alok Kumar Shrivastava & Prashant Kumar Singh & Viji Sitther, 2020. "Nitrogen Deprivation in Fremyella diplosiphon Augments Lipid Production without Affecting Growth," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-12, November.
    13. Hongbo Duan & Gupeng Zhang & Shouyang Wang & Ying Fan, 2018. "Balancing China’s climate damage risk against emission control costs," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 387-403, March.
    14. Luca Gerotto & Paolo Pellizzari, 2021. "A replication of Pindyck’s willingness to pay: on the efforts required to obtain results," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(5), pages 1-25, May.
    15. Fremstad, Anders & Paul, Mark, 2022. "Neoliberalism and climate change: How the free-market myth has prevented climate action," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    16. Rongrong Xu & Yongxiang Wu & Ming Chen & Xuan Zhang & Wei Wu & Long Tan & Gaoxu Wang & Yi Xu & Bing Yan & Yuedong Xia, 2019. "Calculation of the contribution rate of China’s hydraulic science and technology based on a feedforward neural network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(9), pages 1-22, September.
    17. Kalkuhl, Matthias & Wenz, Leonie, 2020. "The impact of climate conditions on economic production. Evidence from a global panel of regions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    18. Tobias Kranz & Hamza Bennani & Matthias Neuenkirch, 2024. "Monetary Policy and Climate Change: Challenges and the Role of Major Central Banks," Research Papers in Economics 2024-01, University of Trier, Department of Economics.
    19. Maity, Jyoti Prakash & Hou, Chia-Peng & Majumder, Dip & Bundschuh, Jochen & Kulp, Thomas R. & Chen, Chien-Yen & Chuang, Lu-Te & Nathan Chen, Ching-Nen & Jean, Jiin-Shuh & Yang, Tsui-Chu & Chen, Chien-, 2014. "The production of biofuel and bioelectricity associated with wastewater treatment by green algae," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 94-103.
    20. Attahiru, Yusuf Babangida & Aziz, Md. Maniruzzaman A. & Kassim, Khairul Anuar & Shahid, Shamsuddin & Wan Abu Bakar, Wan Azelee & NSashruddin, Thanwa Filza & Rahman, Farahiyah Abdul & Ahamed, Mohd Imra, 2019. "A review on green economy and development of green roads and highways using carbon neutral materials," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 600-613.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:59:y:2016:i:c:p:1269-1297. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.