Utilization of bio-inspired catalyst for CO2 reduction into green fuels: Recent advancement and future perspectives

Exhaustion of hydrocarbon deposits and increasing the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is a very perturbing problem. Due to the greenhouse effect and pollution, the level of CO2 increases rapidly. CO2 considered as a greenhouse gas as well as basic raw materials for carbon resources. Therefore, CO2 reduction and its utilization is a current topic of research. One of the best utilization methods of CO2 is to convert into various products and hydrocarbons via several techniques such as thermal, photochemical, electrochemical and enzymatic. In this review, we summarize the abstraction and working of CO2 reduction into hydrocarbons fuels using the enzymatic approach. Proteins and microorganism based enzymes have been studied widely for the CO2 reduction via the redox reaction. The enzymatic approach is a green, less toxic and efficient way to reduce CO2 into useful products emphasizing on Co-factor, single enzyme and multi-enzyme system for CO2 reduction to various products and hydrocarbon fuels. Mechanism of enzymatic system integrated with polymer, transition metal and semiconductor (i.e. Nano-hybrids) and also enzyme immobilization also plays an important role for CO2 reduction application were reviewed and discussed in detail. In this review, we also discuss the various types of enzyme system integrated with electro/photo catalyst and the implementation of the enzyme based catalysts in the semi-artificial photosynthesis system and mimic natural photosystem II. Finally, the new challenges and the novel approaches of CO2 reduction via the enzymatic catalyst are discussed.