Sustainable Production of Chemicals via Hydrotreating of CO2 and Biomass Derived Molecules Using Heterogeneous Noble Metal Oxide Catalysts

The noble metals are widely used in heterogeneous catalysis and automobile industry. The limited natural sources and high cost of noble metals dictates improving the efficiency of modern industry. This review considers the applications of noble metal oxide as potential solutions to the sustainability issues, including biomass conversion, CO₂ capture and conversion, green fuel production, etc. Noble metal oxides with their different compositions (monometallic and bimetallic) and structures exhibit a wide range of properties in heterogeneous catalysis. Although platinum metals in an oxidized form may not be the most common choice in hydroprocesses; recently, there have been studies indicating that they were highly active and selective catalysts in hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis. This review outlines the most established noble metal oxide catalysts used in hydrogenation catalysis and shed the light on the relation of noble metal oxide species to catalyst selectivity based on state-of-the-art techniques. Finally, the perspectives on the application of noble metal oxide catalysts to produce value-added chemicals are discussed.