Improving the catalytic activity of Au/SiO₂ catalyst in the directly conversion of CO₂, C₂H₄ and H₂ using a new dual-reactor concept

Abstract

Directly conversion of CO2 to propanol using C2H4 and H2 had succeeded over Au/SiO2 catalyst in one reactor mode. However, application of new dual-reactor concept enhaned the catalytic activity strongly by using two saparated reactors. To this details, a first reactor is used to convert CO2 to CO through the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction, consecutive hydroformylation of C2H4 with resulting CO and H2 to propanal and finally the hydrogenation of propanal to propanol takes place in a second reactor at a different temperature. The selectivity to oxo products (propanol and propanal) increased from 15% up to 60% while yeild of oxo products improved from 7% to 15% in comparison with the previous publications.