Efficient and New Production Methods of Chemicals and Liquid Fuels by Carbon Monoxide Hydrogenation

Carbon monoxide (CO) hydrogenation is an important step for efficient utilization of carbon resources in C1 (one carbon) chemistry. Over recent years, this direction has been a hot research area in academia and industry and has also been one of the most challenging routes for the nonoil carbon resources utilization process. A large number of novel reaction routes and catalysts have been studied and reported. Efficient activation and directional conversion of CO are key aspects in the process of CO utilization. Furthermore, effectively activating C-O and C-C bond formation as well as controlling carbon chain growth is the current technical bottleneck of CO hydrogenation. This mini-review introduces the latest research progress for different catalyst systems and processes in CO hydrogenation and analyzes the factors that control the performance of catalysts in different reaction systems. Here, much focus is put on the synthesis of long-chain hydrocarbons, light olefins, C2+ oxygenates, and aromatics, essentially in comparison with the previous reports. Finally, the present challenges and future research directions have been discussed.