CO2 Conversion on N-Doped Carbon Catalysts via Thermo- and Electrocatalysis: Role of C–NOx Moieties. Samu, Huu Chuong Nguyën, Núria López, Plamen Atanassov, Zoltán Kónya, András Sápi, Csaba Janáky. Dorottya Hursán, Marietta Ábel, Kornélia Baán, Edvin Fako, Gergely F.This article is cited by 882 publications. Our ability to develop a feasible anthropogenic chemical carbon cycle supplementing nature’s photosynthesis also offers a new solution to one of the major challenges facing humankind. We also discuss in more detail the essential stages and the significant aspects of carbon capture and subsequent recycling. In the present Perspective, we extend the discussion of the innovative and feasible anthropogenic carbon cycle, which can be the basis of progressively liberating humankind from its dependence on diminishing fossil fuel reserves while also controlling harmful CO 2 emissions to the atmosphere. We have previously reviewed aspects of the chemical recycling of carbon dioxide to methanol and dimethyl ether. While biosources can play a limited role in supplementing future energy needs, they increasingly interfere with the essentials of the food chain. The anthropogenic carbon dioxide cycle offers a way of assuring a sustainable future for humankind when fossil fuels become scarce.
The required energy for the synthetic carbon cycle can come from any alternative energy source such as solar, wind, geothermal, and even hopefully safe nuclear energy. The needed renewable starting materials, water and CO 2, are available anywhere on Earth. This concept of broad scope and framework is the basis of what we call the Methanol Economy. It can then be converted by feasible chemical transformations into fuels such as methanol, dimethyl ether, and varied products including synthetic hydrocarbons and even proteins for animal feed, thus supplementing our food chain. Carbon dioxide is captured by absorption technologies from any natural or industrial source, from human activities, or even from the air itself. To supplement the natural carbon cycle, we have proposed and developed a feasible anthropogenic chemical recycling of carbon dioxide. The burning of our diminishing fossil fuel reserves is accompanied by large anthropogenic CO 2 release, which is outpacing nature’s CO 2 recycling capability, causing significant environmental harm. Only given sufficient geological time, millions of years, can new fossil fuels be formed naturally. Nature’s photosynthesis uses the sun’s energy with chlorophyll in plants as a catalyst to recycle carbon dioxide and water into new plant life.