The Contribution of Catalysis for the Realization of GSC in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

The drastic climate change on global scale is becoming very serious. To curb the anthropogenic CO₂ emissions will be one of the most important issues for the human society in the twenty-first century. The chemical industry can contribute to this issue from the viewpoint of green sustainable chemistry. We have been establishing various innovative catalyst technologies and can still continue further efforts. Considering the existence of huge infrastructure of the conventional processes based on fossil resources, it would be very difficult to turn into new technologies based on sustainable resources quickly and straightforwardly. Thus it may be good to apply more practical strategies along the realistic time line. Here we propose a strategy comprised of establishing more energy-effective chemical processes based on fossil resources in short term, utilizing biomasses as chemical feedstocks in large scale in middle term, and pursuit of the artificial photosynthesis as a final goal in long term. In this article, several topics in each category are introduced.