Can CO2 and Renewable Carbon Be Primary Resources for Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals?

With the increasing global population, the demands for fuels and chemicals are greater than ever. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the use of fossil fuel-based conventional feedstocks are also a matter of great concern. A revolution is needed to replace the conventional feedstocks, processes, and the materials that enable these processes with more sustainable alternatives such as renewable biomass, recycled carbon, and carbon dioxide (CO₂). In fact, we are at the verge of witnessing a shift from conventional fossil fuel-based petrochemical conversion to more sustainable processes that utilize unconventional feedstocks. Specifically, CO₂ can be viewed as a renewable source of carbon, which can be used as a C1 building block to valuable chemicals.