Methanol demand is continuously increasing in the chemical and energy industries. It is commercially produced from synthesis gas (CO + CO2+ H-2) using CuO/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts. Today, much effort is being put on the development of technologies for its production from carbon dioxide (CO2). In this way, the Greenhouse effect may be mitigated. Over the years, several useful works on CO2 hydrogenation to methanol have been reported in the literature. In this article, we present a comprehensive overview of all the recent studies published during the past decade. Various aspects on this reaction system (such as thermodynamic considerations, innovations in catalysts, influences of reaction variables, overall catalyst performance, reaction mechanism and kinetics, and recent technological advances) are described in detail. The major challenges confronting methanol production from CO2 are considered. By now, such a discussion is still missing, and we intend to close this gap in this paper. (C) 2014 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.