<span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family: "Times New Roman";mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-family: Mangal;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language: HI" lang="EN-GB">Analysis of pyridinium catalyzed electrochemical and photoelectrochemical reduction of CO₂: Chemistry and economic impact</span>

Abstract

This review highlights the recent work related to the electrochemical and photoelectrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into methanol and formic acid. Information related to the structural, mechanistic and kinetic aspects of the pyridinium and imidazolium catalyzed reduction processes is presented. The economic impact of these processes is delineated by calculating the cost per billion gallons of gasoline equivalence for methanol by three methods viz., electrochemical conversion, photoelectrochemical conversion, combined electrochemical conversion and thermal conversion. Our initial analysis shows that the last method may be the most economically feasible method under the existing technologies.