BACKGROUND

Transforming CO₂ into high-value chemical supplies is an effective approach to reduce carbon emissions. The conversion and utilization of CO₂ in all aspects can produce huge economic benefits and good social benefits. The high-value chemical supplies transformed from chemical reactions of CO₂ are mainly in the following aspects: 1) converting into methanol and ethanol, 2) converting into methane, 3) converting to synthetic gas, and synthetic oil from synthetic gas, and 4) producing synthetic carbonate products. The main method to realize this is based on electrocatalysis, which the electricity is from the proton and lithium-ion batteries as mentioned above. The current issues of CO₂ conversion include the conversion efficiency and the challenge in the separation of specific products. The reaction process and product distribution are greatly affected by electrolytic parameters, including  electrocatalysts (composition, size, morphology, surface oxidation, and roughness), electrode/electrolyte interface (electrolyte type, reaction, effectiveness of active parts), type, temperature, pressure, and working voltage of electrochemical reaction pools. It is generally believed that the high CO₂ activation energy, poor dissolution of CO₂, and competition with hydrogen analysis, these three factors have caused the slow dynamic behaviour of CO₂ chemistry, which is a main objective of this Hub and will be addressed by two approaches: (1) exploring effective catalyst; and (2) optimizing the system integration.