Comprehensive review of CO 2 utilization: Transforming carbon into fuels, chemicals and materials for a sustainable future

Abstract

Abstract Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) utilization has emerged as a promising pathway to convert a major greenhouse gas into value‐added products, offering both environmental and economic benefits. While CO 2 to fuel, CO 2 to chemical, and CO 2 to material conversion routes have each been reviewed extensively in isolation, existing literature rarely compares these three product streams against one another on a common basis of technology readiness, energy penalty and economic competitiveness with incumbent fossil‐derived routes leaving researchers and policymakers without a clear view of which CO 2 utilization pathways merit near‐term investment versus long‐term R&D. This review addresses that gap by critically synthesizing and cross‐comparing CO 2 conversion routes across fuels (methanol, synthetic hydrocarbons, and syngas), chemicals (urea, formic acid, carbonates, and polymers), and materials (mineralization and construction composites) using consistent criteria—catalyst performance, conversion efficiency, energy demand, technology readiness level, and techno‐economic viability. Rather than cataloguing individual studies, the review identifies the technical and economic bottlenecks common across pathways (renewable H 2 availability and cost, thermodynamic equilibrium limits, catalyst deactivation, CO 2 capture cost) and explains why some routes such as CO 2 cured concrete and dry reforming to syngas are closer to commercial deployment than others, such as CO 2 to hydrocarbon photocatalysis. The review concludes with a cross‐sectoral research and policy agenda for accelerating commercially viable, sustainable CO 2 utilization.