Recent Advances in CO2 Capture and Utilization

摘要

Energy and the environment are two of the most importantissues this century. More than 80% of our energy comes from thecombustion of fossil fuels, which will still remain the dominantenergy source for years to come. it is agreed that carbon dioxideproduced from the combustion process to be the most importantanthropogenic greenhouse gas leading to global warming. At-mospheric CO2 concentrations have indeed increased by almost100 ppm since their pre-industrial level, reaching 384 ppm in2007 with a total annual emission of over 35 Gt. Prompt globalaction to resolve the CO2 crisis is therefore needed. To pursue such an action, we are urged to save energy without the unnec-essary production of carbon emissions and to use energy in moreefficient ways, but alternative methods to mitigate the green-house gas have to be considered. This Minireview highlightssome recent promising research activities and their prospects inthe areas of carbon capture and storage and chemical fixation ofCO2 in constructing a future low-carbon global economy with ref-erence to energy source, thermodynamic considerations, netcarbon emissions and availability of reagents.