CU-CATALYZED REDUCTION OF CO2 INTO FORMIC ACID WITH IRON UNDER MILD HYDROTHERMAL CONDITIONS

摘要

The global warming caused by the increasing atmospheric CO2 and the energy crisis caused by the rapid growth of fossil fuel consumption are becoming extremely urgent for humanity to solve. Many attempts have been made to meet this challenge, which mainly include: (1) reducing CO2 emission, e.g., increasing energy production efficiency or using renewable energy; (2) implementing innovative technologies for capturing the produced CO2, then sequestrating it underground or in the ocean, or utilizing it biochemically/chemically as a carbon source to produce useful chemicals and fuels. As for the utilization of CO2 as a carbon source to produce useful chemicals and fuels, compared with biochemical approaches, chemical, particularly for thermochemical, conversion/utilization of CO2 has higher potential for industrial implementation. Recently, catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 into hydrocarbon fuels has been studied widely. However, it should be noted that, in most of these researches, gaseous H2 and noble catalysts are required, because the hydrogenation of CO2 is not easy to obtain at a low energy cost. On the other hand, water is the most abundant hydrogen resource on the earth, and thus the reduction of CO2 by using hydrogen from water is a potential approach.