Thermal Carbon Dioxide Splitting: A Summary of the Peer-Reviewed Scientific Literature

Abstract

Increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO~2~) in the atmosphere have stimulated significant global research and development efforts regarding the reduction in CO~2~ emissions from all point and non-point sources. In addition to technologies that do not use carbon feedstocks or which capture and "permanently" store CO~2~ (i.e., sequestration), there is considerable worldwide interest among the academic, industrial, and government communities regarding methods for dissociating waste stream carbon dioxide molecules into their constituent carbon and oxygen ("CO~2~ splitting") atoms as a final "end-of-pipe" treatment option. The splitting of carbon dioxide has also been actively discussed and researched in the space exploration and extraterrestrial colonization programs for several decades. This document summarizes the peer-reviewed open source scientific literature regarding thermal methods for carbon dioxide splitting.