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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is broadly recognised as having the potential to play a key role in meeting climate change targets, delivering low carbon heat and power, decarbonising industry and, more recently, its ability to facilitate the net removal of CO2 from the atmosphere. However, despite this broad consensus and its technical maturity, CCS has not yet been deployed on a scale commensurate with the ambitions articulated a decade ago. Thus, in this paper we review the current state-of-the-art of CO2 capture, transport, utilisation and storage from a multi-scale perspective, moving from the global to molecular scales. In light of the COP21 commitments to limit warming to less than 2 °C, we extend the remit of this study to include the key negative emissions technologies (NETs) of bioenergy with CCS (BECCS), and direct air capture (DAC). Cognisant of the non-technical barriers to deploying CCS, we reflect on recent experience from the UK's CCS commercialisation programme and consider the commercial and political barriers to the large-scale deployment of CCS. In all areas, we focus on identifying and clearly articulating the key research challenges that could usefully be addressed in the coming decade.

Organic azides are widely used in organic synthesis. Continuous flow processing can be used to bypass their isolation, and can therefore be useful in mitigating the hazards associated with these potentially toxic and explosive reagents. Nonaflyl azide has been reported as an effective, bench-stable, and relatively safe diazo transfer reagent that can be useful in the preparation of azides from amines and so avoid the use of alkyl halides. Here we demonstrate the synthesis and purification of nonaflyl azide in continuous flow with isolation of the neat, pure reagent by membrane filtration. The neat reagent was used in the preparation of organic azides from primary amines, and then applied to the synthesis of triazoles. A variety of triazoles, including the antiseizure drug Rufinamide, were prepared from primary amines and alkynes via the CuAAC click reaction in a semi-batch parallel array without isolation of alkyl azide intermediates. A telescoped two-stage continuous flow process was also designed and demonstrated to form triazoles via the same CuAAC reaction, which avoids the handling of the intermediate reactive azides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Millions of tons of solvents are consumed annually in various industrial sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, chemical synthesis, textiles, coatings, paints, and others. Ionic liquids (ILs) are pairs of ions in the liquid form synthesized at temperatures below 100 °C that meet specific demands of processes, replacing organic solvents that are harmful to the environment. They offer exceptional prospects as advanced solvents owing to their unique attributes and remarkable recyclability. However, alkyl imidazolium-based ILs have proven to be flammable when exposed to heat, and cytotoxicity and phytotoxicity were observed for many traditional ILs. Therefore, with a focus on negligible toxicity, biocompatibility, straightforward preparation, and sustainability, biocompatible ionic liquids (Bio-ILs) have emerged with huge potential in many different fields of chemistry. These solvents are specifically designed to be derived from naturally occurring compounds. Their physical–chemical properties, modulated according to the application, make them an attractive green technology. Therefore, this review addresses the recent advances in Bio-ILs that include the production of renewable commodities and approaches in catalysis and the pharmaceutical field. Likewise, patents and future perspectives are discussed, demonstrating the great potential of Bio-ILs as green and sustainable compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]