Recent Advances in Solar Thermal Electrochemical Process (STEP) for Carbon Neutral Products and High Value Nanocarbons

ConspectusClimate change represents one of the most important environmental issues of our time. Due to high levels of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, atmospheric CO2 has for the first time ever exceeded 415 ppm and has increased from 315 ppm in 1950. An annual increase in atmospheric CO2 of ∼2 ppm is equal to a net increase of ∼15.6 billion tons of CO2. The combustion of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation is still the main reason accounting for the CO2 accumulation. On the top of that, fossil fuels are widely used in our modern industry for the productions of indispensable social staples. For instance, the millennia old thermal reduction of iron ore by charcoal or baked coal (3C + 2Fe2O3 → 4Fe + 3CO2) continues as the main method for the production of iron. The artificial fertilizer ammonia boosts the global population and is mainly produced from the Haber–Bosch process, in which hydrogen is generated via steam reforming of methane (CH4 + 2H2O → 4H2 + CO2). Sequestration and diminution of CO2 re...