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  • Perspective
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Tandem reactors and reactions for CO2 conversion

Nature Chemical Engineering volume 1, pages 139–148 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) valorization is a promising pathway for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions from the chemical sector and reducing the reliance of chemical manufacturing on fossil fuel feedstocks. This Perspective discusses tandem catalytic paradigms for sustainable CO2 conversion that have potential advantages over processes using single-functional catalysts. Recent progress is discussed for tandem catalysis using multifunctional catalysts in a single reactor, as well as tandem reactors involving multiple catalysts. Opportunities for further developing these tandem strategies for thermochemical and electrochemical processes in various configurations are presented to encourage research in this burgeoning field.

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Fig. 1: An illustration of the different catalyst mixing scales relevant to tandem catalysis and tandem reactors.
Fig. 2: Tandem thermocatalytic strategies for CO2 conversion.
Fig. 3: Tandem electrocatalytic strategies for CO2 conversion.
Fig. 4: Tandem EC–TC and TC–EC reactors for CO2 conversion.
Fig. 5: An illustration of progress in and opportunities for CO2 upgrading by single reactor tandem catalysis and tandem reactors.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Catalysis Science Program (grant no. DE-FG02-13ER16381 and contract no. DE-SC0012704). S.G. acknowledges support by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant no. DGE-2036197.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Samay Garg, Zhenhua Xie & Jingguang G. Chen

  2. Chemistry Division, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, USA

    Zhenhua Xie & Jingguang G. Chen

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  1. Samay Garg
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  2. Zhenhua Xie
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  3. Jingguang G. Chen
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S.G., Z.X. and J.G.C. conceived the concept of this paper. All authors participated in writing the paper. J.G.C. and Z.X. supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Zhenhua Xie or Jingguang G. Chen.

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Nature Chemical Engineering thanks Yizhi Xiang and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Garg, S., Xie, Z. & Chen, J.G. Tandem reactors and reactions for CO2 conversion. Nat Chem Eng 1, 139–148 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44286-023-00020-2

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