Recent Advances in Catalysts for Methanol Synthesis via Hydrogenation of CO and CO₂

Abstract

Since the start of last century, methanol synthesis has attracted great interests because of its importance in chemical industries and its potential as an environmentally friendly energy carrier. The catalyst for the methanol synthesis has been a key area of research in order to optimize the reaction process. In the literature, the nature of the active site and the effects of the promoter and support have been extensively investigated. In this updated review, the recent progresses in the catalyst innovation, optimization of the reaction conditions, reaction mechanism, and catalyst performance in methanol synthesis are comprehensively discussed. Key issues of catalyst improvement are highlighted, and areas of priority in R&D are identified in the conclusions.

Hydrogen Utilization in Green Fuel Synthesis via CO2 Conversion to Methanol over New Cu-Based Catalysts

“…CO2 hydrogenation to methanol by using Cu-based catalytic systems promoted by several oxides/carriers has been widely investigated in literature [3,5,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][27][28][29][30][31][32], although very few examples of multicomponent CuO-ZnO-CeO2 and CuO-ZnO-CeO2-ZrO2 systems are still present [25,26,33,34,41,42].…”

“…Before catalytic tests, catalysts were in-situ activated at 573 K in reducing atmosphere, flowing (5.5 NL•g −1 •h −1 ) 5% H2/Ar gas mixture for 1 h at a heating rate of 10 K•min −1 . After catalysts activation the reactor was fed with a CO2/H2/N2 (3/9/1) mixture flowing at 80 STPcm 3 •min −1 (GHSV, 8.800 NL•kgcat −1 •h −1 ) using nitrogen as internal standard for GC analysis. The composition of inlet and outlet streams was analyzed in real time by an inline gas chromatograph HP 6890 equipped with a TCD detector and two packed columns (Porapack Q and 5A molecular sieve, Sigma-Aldrich (Milano, Italy)) connected in series for the analysis of permanent gasses, and a FID detector coupled with a capillary column (PoraPLOT Q, i.d., 0.53 mm; l, 30 m, Agilent (Cernusco sul Naviglio (MI), Italy)) for the hydrocarbon species quantification.…”

“…In particular, CO 2 conversion into fuel products is the most promising way for a larger H 2 utilization, as an energy vector, providing for instance methanol and other light oxygenated hydrocarbons for fuel cell (FC) applications (i.e., direct methanol/alcohols FC). Indeed, the catalytic hydrogenation of CO 2 is still more effective than direct photo-conversion [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Chromium-modified zinc oxides

“…Besides methanol synthesis and water gas shift reaction, two additional processes become today of prime interests, i.e. carbon dioxide conversion with hydrogen to methanol and steam reforming of methanol [15,16]. Carbon dioxide is produced worldwide via combustion of fossil fuels.…”

MAXNET Energy – Focusing Research in Chemical Energy Conversion on the Electrocatlytic Oxygen Evolution

“…While the idea to use energy from renewable sources to split water into hydrogen [3] or to capture carbon dioxide and convert it to methanol as chemical storage medium (fuel) is debatable as the technological solution [4], it provides an illustrative example demonstrating which key technologies are required -irrespective of which processes, carriers or systems will be realized in detail. The common motif will be the chemical conversion of small molecules like water, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon dioxide (not to forget nitrogen and ammonia), which heavily relies on potent catalysts to shift uphill chemical reactions into technically manageable regimes.…”