Solar energy application on methanol production and purification—a concise review

Literatures from last two decades have been critically reviewed to analyze the state-of-the-art of methanol production with a special emphasis on atmospheric carbon-di-oxide (CO2) capture, photo-conversion and downstream purification of product, employing membrane technology. Due to the continuously overgrowing industrial applications and air-pollution, concentration of green-house gases like, CO2 is rising in the biosphere. Different research attempts have been reported on chemical conversion of atmospheric CO2 to economically viable products. This is absolutely essential in the modern era because a paradigm shift in production strategies from fossil fuel based technologies to novel schemes becomes imminent. Graphene based hybrid and composite materials with improved properties could be better nanomaterial for the selective photo-conversion of CO2 to methanol under visible light. With an aim towards pollutant abatement and high value product development, this review has been initiated with a special thrust towards photo-transformation of the abundantly available resource (CO2) to methanol or ethanol, along with the solar driven membrane based downstream separation of such products.