Recent Development on Photocatalysts and Membrane Processes for Photoreduction of CO2 into C1 Solar Fuels

This review paper delineates an overview of recent developments on photocatalytic processes for the photoreduction of CO2 into C1 solar fuels including methanol and methane. The efficiency of the novel processes reported is compared in terms of the yields of C1 fuels. Brief introduction on synthetic protocols of the cited photocatalysts employed for the photoreduction of CO2 into C1 fuels is succinctly discoursed in this work. Furthermore, an additional review section is also included for summarizing the recently published ideas of different configurations of photocatalytic membrane processes utilized for the separation of CO2 converted C1 products from the reaction solvent. It was concluded that there is still substantial room of improvement for both newly developed photocatalytic systems and membrane processes in terms of C1 yield and the fuel separation efficiency, respectively. Despite its potential as a promising green candidate used for carbon capture and utilization, additional studies are still necessary prior to its scalable application in industry. These studies should take a deep dive into the optimization of both photocatalytic and membrane separation processes, largely by development of novel photocatalytic systems that are highly efficient in CO2 conversion and membrane systems that are selective toward desired fuel products.