Almost all pathways for conversion of CO2 to value depend on catalysts to do the job. Even those conversions using purely biological routes use enzymes as catalysts, so biological catalysts.
If optimal catalysts are identified, who knows, one could be looking at producing fuels, chemicals and materials from CO2 much faster and much cheaper. But that is perhaps much easier said than done.
While the good news is that the world of science is quite familiar with catalysis and catalysts, the challenge is that the world of catalysts is wide. While there are indeed some prominent metal catalysts many of us would have heard about (Titanium, platinum, iron, cobalt), there can be heterogenous catalysts that are combination of catalysts, and then there are biological catalysts.
On biological catalysts, over 2000 enzymes have been identified (there are prominent companies specialized just for this, such as Novozymes), and the human cell alone is supposed to contain over 1200 enzymes. You get the idea.
The industrial catalyst market is already worth about $20 billion a year worldwide (and total catalyst market around $35 billon). With climate change and sustainability becoming top of agenda for research and business, it appears that the exciting world of catalysts beckons an array of science and engineering professionals - especially those belonging to chemical/chem engg sciencies, biotechnology, material sciences.
And for those who are curious about the prominent companies already serving the global catalyst market, here you go:
1. Haldor Topsoe, Denmark
2. UOP, USA
3. Axens, France
4. Johnson Matthey, UK
5. Criterion, USA (part of Shell Group)
6. Süd-Chemie, Germany
7. Albemarle, USA
8. Grace Davison, UK
9. BASF, Germany
10. ExxonMobil Chemical, USA
11. Evonik, Germany
12. Honeywell, USA
13. Dow Chemical, USA
14. Cataler (part of Toyota, Japan)
15. Clariant, Switzerland
16. Umicore, Belgium
17. Cristal, Saudi Arabia
18. Arkema, France
19. Applied Catalysts, USA
And here are prominent companies in the industrial and specialty enzymes market:
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