CO₂ has been released into the atmosphere at continuously increasing rates since the Industrial Revolution in large part due to anthropomorphic emissions as a result of increased energy demand, chemical production, and some agricultural practices. Together, these activities have resulted in a 50% increase in the atmospheric CO₂ concentration within the past few centuries. (1,2) Specifically, the continued rise of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is associated with a variety of adverse effects, including extreme weather patterns, disruptions in food supply, higher average global temperatures, and, if left unaddressed, a threat of mass extinction. (3−5) The Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has outlined key Sustainable Development Goals focused on improvements to curtail the global threat of GHG emissions. (6) One of these goals is focused on the development of innovation and sustainable practices to enable decarbonized industrial processes; here “decarbonized” refers to reducing the concentration of CO₂ and other GHG gases in the atmosphere. The industrial sector accounted for 30% of all U.S. energy-related CO₂ emissions in 2020 and the global chemical industry represents 5% of emissions worldwide. (7,8) Noteworthily, the production of many commodity chemicals, including ammonia, olefins, and methanol, requires several energy-intensive reactions that involve relatively high reaction temperatures (700–1000 °C). (9) As a result, the CO₂ emissions from chemical production alone totaled 2 billion metric tons in 2022. (10) As global chemical production is anticipated to quadruple by 2060, (11) the feedstocks and processes for chemical synthesis must be improved to reduce the environmental impact of these industries in the coming decades. More specifically, a net zero emission scenario developed by the International Energy Agency (IEA) necessitates an 18% reduction of CO₂ emissions within the chemical sector by 2030 (compared to 2022), intending to achieve net zero emissions by the year 2050. (10)...

...Approximately 80% of the energy consumed in the U.S. chemical industry is related to heat generation, which is most commonly through the combustion of fossil fuels. (14,35) In these processes, thermal energy is required to preheat the reactants and maintain the reactor to desired temperatures in order to produce chemicals and materials at scale. Specifically, for the highly endothermic reaction processes, an array of up to 100 tubular catalytic reactors is positioned within a gas burner furnace for optimal heat distribution within the catalyst bed. This external heating/burning process through the combustion of fossil fuels leads to several sustainability challenges: 1) Heating across the volume of the reactor/catalyst-bed in many cases is not uniform, the steep temperature gradients can lead to side/undesired products or reduced conversion efficiency. 2) Start-up and shut-down times for these reactors can be very lengthy due to their large volumes, resulting in further energy consumption, fossil fuel combustion, and GHG emissions. 3) Insufficient heat flux requires the generation of temperatures much greater than that of the desired reaction to ensure sufficient heat transfer throughout the entirety of the reactor volume, ultimately leading to large amounts of heat waste...