Global opportunities and challenges on net-zero CO2 emissions towards a sustainable future

In recent years, global warming has been showing its deadliest impact on civilization through natural calamities. Given this situation, sustainable and economically viable CO2 capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) techniques are the need of the hour more than ever before. Herein, cutting-edge technologies and materials for CO2 capture, conversion, and utilization are briefly discussed. The advances of various carbon capture technologies such as absorption, adsorption, membrane, and biochemical are investigated. Furthermore, the conversion of CO2 into value-added products with the help of single-atom catalysts, plasma technology, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) is discussed in detail. MOFs and COFs have been receiving a great deal of attention as they offer material design flexibility to enhance the CO2 conversion efficiency. Among the existing methods, plasma technology has received the least attention; however, it has the potential to enhance the conversion rate, as demonstrated. On CO2 utilization, two significant energy-intensive technologies, refrigeration and air-conditioning and the organic Rankine cycle, that have the potential to utilize either pure or blended CO2 as their working fluid, are discussed. Specifically, the blending of CO2 with hydrocarbons has grabbed attention as a potential alternative natural working fluid with minimal environmental impact. The utilization of CO2 in commercial technologies primarily relies on the balance between performance enhancement and environmental benefits. Pilot-scale research projects and opportunities on CCUS technologies have also been discussed.