Catalysis research of relevance to carbon management: progress, challenges and opportunities

The primary goals were to review in depth the current state of knowledge, barriers to further scientific and technological progress, and promising scientific research in five important, interconnected areas relating to greenhouse gases and carbon management: (1) hydrogen generation and utilization; (2) light hydrocarbon activation and utilization; (3) carbon dioxide activation, utilization, and sequestration; (4) emerging physicochemical techniques and directions in catalysis research; (5) catalysis for more efficient transportation engines. The choice of topics was necessarily focused. However, these areas share many common themes and represent cases where a greater knowledge base could arguably lead to improved (in terms of rate, selectivity, environmental acceptability, and economy of operation) catalytic processes, thus having a significant positive impact.