Carbon Dioxide to Methanol: A Green Alternative to Fueling the Future

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas causing the current climate change and global warming so that its capture and conversion into several chemical compounds and fuels is important. Methanol is a main product from carbon dioxide reduction that can be used as fuel and as raw material for other important chemicals. This work presents a critical description of different routes for methanol production from carbon dioxide. Methanol can be obtained from carbon dioxide through a direct route such as carbon dioxide hydrogenation, carbon dioxide electrochemical conversion, carbon dioxide photochemical conversion, carbon dioxide photoelectrochemical reduction and carbon dioxide bioconversion. On the other hand, methanol can also be obtained from carbon dioxide through an indirect route through syngas produced via either methane dry reforming or carbon dioxide-water co-electrolysis in a solid oxide electrolytic cell. Among these solutions, carbon dioxide hydrogenation is the most mature technology at the industrial level although it has high costs while other routes are mostly at a lab scale. Carbon dioxide electrochemical reduction is currently the most interesting technology for methanol production due to its simplicity and environmental friendliness.