Green Methanol from CO2 Hydrogenation at Industrial Scale: Progress, Challenges, and Perspectives

Abstract

With the increasing global concern over climate change and energy crisis, green methanol (GM) from carbon dioxide (CO₂) hydrogenation has received extensive research and attention as an effective way to convert greenhouse gases into high value-added chemicals and fuels. However, GM from CO₂ at industrial scale still faces many challenges in industrial applications, including catalyst stability, optimization of reaction conditions, cost of CO₂ capture and purification, hydrogen supply, high investment costs, and market price volatility. This paper reviews the background, importance, and research progress of CO₂ to GM, details the types and properties of catalysts, effects of reaction conditions, catalyst stability and lifetime, and challenges of industrial applications, analyzes the key factors of success through case studies, and concludes by providing the directions and outlooks for future research.