This review provides an analysis of recent scientific and engineering literature on chemical methods for CO₂ processing using heterogeneous catalysts. The following major uses of carbon dioxide are discussed: exhaustive hydrogenation; synthesis of hydrocarbons including light olefins; synthesis of oxygenates; and production of cyclic carbonates. Furthermore, the paper highlights the main design approaches for CO₂ conversion catalysts and formulates priorities for decarbonization using heterogeneous catalytic reactions.

Nanocomposite materials based on poly(vinyl alcohol), cellulose, polystyrene, and styrene–divinylbenzene copolymer are synthesized by IR pyrolysis, and their structures are studied by FTIR spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction. It is found that the composites show catalytic activity in Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. An explanation is provided for the high catalytic activity of the test systems.

Fischer–Tropsch synthesis in the presence of nanosized cobalt-containing catalysts suspended in a mixture of long-chain alkanes has been studied. It has been found that the molecular-mass distribution of the products differs substantially from the typical Anderson–Schulz–Flory distribution. The most evident cause of this phenomenon is the intense hydrogenolysis of long-chain alkanes of the liquid medium which occurs during catalyst activation; this process may proceed to a sufficient extent during Fischer–Tropsch synthesis. The molecular-mass distribution of hydrogenolysis products shows a number of specific features that differ appreciably from those for both classical hydrogenolysis (cracking) in the presence of zeolites and terminal methanolysis, which is frequently observed in the presence of group VIII metals. Problems encountered during the construction of models for the observed distribution are discussed.

The study investigates hydrogenation of CO ₂ over mono- and bimetallic catalysts supported on biochar. In this reaction, bimetallic iron–cobalt catalysts were shown to surpass monometallic iron and cobalt catalysts in terms of catalytic performance. The optimal combination of performance parameters was reached at an iron to cobalt ratio of 3 : 1. The composition and genesis of the active phase in the bimetallic Fe–Co catalyst were identified, and the CO ₂ hydrogenation mechanism was suggested for an iron-dominated bimetallic catalyst. Using biochar as a support was found to provide an active phase composition favorable for CO ₂ hydrogenation.

Currently, the processes of obtaining synthetic liquid hydrocarbons and oxygenates are very relevant. Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) is the most important step in these processes. The products of thermal destruction in argon of the mixture [Co(NH₃)₆][Fe(CN)₆] and Al(OH)₃ were used as catalysts for CO hydrogenation. The resulting compositions were studied using powder X-ray diffraction, IR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, SEM micrographs. The specific surface area, pore and particle size distributions were determined. It was determined that the DCS-based catalysts were active in the high-temperature Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. The effect of aluminum in the catalyst composition on the distribution of reaction products was revealed.

Reducing the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere is a very important task. Therefore, the development and search for new approaches to the synthesis of catalytic systems, allowing for the catalytic conversion of CO₂ into valuable products, is an urgent task. In this work, the catalyst was obtained by the thermolysis of a double complex compound. In this regard, kinetic studies of the parameters of the thermolysis process of double complex salts-[Co(NH)₃]₆][Fe(CN)₆] were additionally determined using isoconversion and model approaches of non-isothermal kinetics. The catalyst was studied using various physicochemical methods—X-ray diffraction (XRD), infrared (IR)-spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It was shown that, at the stage of catalyst preparation, the formation of a CoFe alloy occurred, while the surface mainly consisted of carbon in sp₂-hybridization, and the metals existed in the form of spinel CoFe₂O₄. It was shown that catalysts based on bimetallic salts were active in the process of hydrogenation of carbon dioxide without a pre-activation stage (CO₂ conversion reached 28%, with a specific activity of 4.0 µmolCO₂/gMe·s). It was established that it was possible to change the selectivity of the carbon dioxide hydrogenation process by pre-treating the catalyst with hydrogen (selectivity for methane formation in the presence of an unreduced catalyst is 46.4–68.0%, whereas in the presence of a reduced catalyst it is 5.1–16.5%).