More Efficient CO2 to Methanol Conversions

University of Cincinnati researchers claim to have developed a "highly efficient" reduction and hydrolysis of CO2 to methanol.

A paper on their work was published online 14 June in the ACS journal Energy & Fuels.

Transforming CO2 into methane, the most reduced form of carbon, under homogeneous conditions can be accomplished using silanes as the reducing reagents. Reducing CO2 to methanol would be even more desirable for the advantages of transporting a liquid fuel rather than a gas.

...In this paper, we report a highly efficient nickel system for the catalytic hydroboration of CO2 to methoxyboryl species using a simple borane. The reactions operate at room temperature with TOFs [495 h-1 based on B-H] at least 1 order of magnitude higher than those of the related reactions described above.

Further studies to elucidate the mechanistic details and improve the catalytic efficiencies are in progress. _GCC

The details are rather technical. Availability of CO2 in pure, concentrated form can be problematic as well. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is only 0.04 per cent.