Strategies for multi-step carbon dioxide upgrading and valorization

Upgrading carbon dioxide into valuable chemical products and materials could be a route toward net-zero or carbon-negative production of aviation fuels, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. Existing electrochemical strategies, however, are limited to few-carbon products that are not sufficiently complex to impact the challenge of decarbonizing many industries. Integrating efficient and selective electrochemical synthesis of small molecules with thermochemical, wet chemical, photochemical, and biological processes can solve this challenge, enabling the synthesis of complex many-carbon products. This requires technical integration between distinct approaches and technologies, strategies for scaling and stability, and a better understanding of comparative efficiency and quantification. Here, we describe recent progress in multi-step carbon dioxide upgrading strategies and identify key questions and performance metrics that must be understood to realize the wider array of carbon-neutral chemical products.