Heterogeneous catalysts for the hydrogenation of amine/alkali hydroxide solvent captured CO 2 to formate: A review

Carbon capture and utilization technology is one of the medium‐term technology options to reduce CO 2 emissions while producing value‐added fuels and chemical products. The integrated CO 2 capture and hydrogenation process is an encouraging replacement to the conventional decoupled CO 2 capture and hydrogenation process, which allows direct utilization of captured CO 2 thus eliminating the energy‐intensive CO 2 desorption and compression steps in the typical carbon capture and storage (CCS) process. The hydrogenation of captured CO 2 in amine/alkali hydroxide solvents is the key step to attain the integrated CO 2 capture and hydrogenation process. Considering the lack of timely review on the topic of hydrogenation of amine/alkali hydroxide solvent captured CO 2 to formate in the presence of heterogeneous catalysts, a summary of such process with different capturing solvents and heterogeneous catalyst were critically summarized and briefly reviewed in the current paper. The main goal of this review is to provide fundamental insights and guidance for the future design of heterogeneous catalysts for the hydrogenation of captured CO 2 in amine/alkali metal hydroxide‐based solvents. Future research directions to advance the process of hydrogenation of captured CO 2 were also recommended. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.