Tandem Conversion of CO 2 to Valuable Hydrocarbons in Highly Concentrated Potassium Iron Catalysts

The alarming atmospheric concentration and continuous emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) require immediate action. As a result of advances in CO 2 capture and sequestration technologies (generally involving point sources such as energy generation plants), large amounts of pure CO 2 will soon be available. In addition to geological storage and other applications of the captured CO 2 , the development of technologies able to convert this carbon feedstock into commodity chemicals may pave the way towards a more sustainable economy. Here, we present a novel multifunctional catalyst consisting of Fe 2 O 3 encapsulated in K 2 CO 3 that can transform CO 2 into olefins via a tandem mechanism. In contrast to traditional systems in Fischer‐Tropsch reactions, we demonstrate that when dealing with CO 2 conversion (in contrast to CO), very high K loadings are key to activate CO 2 via the well‐known ‘potassium carbonate mechanism’. The proposed catalytic process is demonstrated to be as productive as existing commercial processes based on synthesis gas while relying on economically and environmentally advantageous CO 2 feedstock.