Carbon Dioxide Recycling - CO2 Reduction to CO

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the leading greenhouse gas that is being released into the atmosphere by civilization today as it burns fossil fuels for transportation and electricity generation.  Photosynthesis originally converted that CO2 into the organic matter that then turned into the carbon-based fuels we are extracting from the ground today.  Recycling CO2 (obtained from flue gas at the source or extracted from ambient air) to produce liquid fuels can provide near-term fungible solutions that take full economic advantage of existing infrastructure to mitigate effects of our current energy portfolio.  Of particular interest is the reduction of CO2 to CO, which, as a component of synthesis gas (syngas), can be converted to methane, synthetic petroleum, or other liquid fuels using commercially mature Fischer-Tröpsch technologies.  SOFI researchers in this TWG are developing new catalysts that reduce CO2 at modest overpotentials (less wasted energy) with high turnover frequencies and turnover numbers (better efficiency and longevity).