Spatiotemporal regulation of renewable energy via sustainable carbon-cycle fuels

Abstract Industrialization has driven intensive exploitation of fossil carbon resources, resulting in surging atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Restoring global carbon cycle balance now demands effective decarbonization strategies. Yet despite rapid growth in renewable energy, spatiotemporal mismatches between supply and demand prevent electricity from fully displacing fossil fuels. Hydrogen energy faces similar obstacles, including variable production costs and geographic imbalances between sources and consumers. Here, we propose an integrated pathway for synthesizing sustainable carbon-cycle fuels that enables long-duration, high-capacity spatiotemporal regulation of renewable energy. This approach couples renewable electricity-driven water electrolysis for green hydrogen production with CO2 captured via direct air capture (DAC) or industrial carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technologies. The captured CO2 and hydrogen then undergo photosynthesis-inspired catalytic conversion to yield carbon-neutral liquid fuels. This strategy leverages advanced catalysis, promotes carbon cycling, and remains compatible with existing refining infrastructure. Although challenges persist in catalyst longevity, system efficiency, and production economics, continued technological progress should enable large-scale chemical storage of renewable energy—offering a viable pathway toward global deep decarbonization.