Producing Methanol from CO2 on Cu-Zn-Catalyst on Commercial Supports: Effect of the Support and Conditions of the Reaction

The catalytic properties of Cu-Zn catalysts are investigated on such commercial supports as Al2O3, SiO2, ZrO2(La), TiO2, ZnO, and activated carbon in the reaction of CO2 hydrogenation with the production of methanol. CuZn/Al2O3 catalyst displays the highest conversion of CO2. The highest selectivities toward methanol (99 and 97.5%) are observed for CuZn/ZrO2(La) and CuZn/SiO2 catalysts, respectively, while high values of selectivity toward CH3OH (90-95%) are achieved in the 175-275 degrees C range of temperatures. The highest methanol productivity is 547 g/(kgkat h) on catalyst CuZn/ZrO2(La). The synthesized catalysts are studied via low-temperature nitrogen adsorption, X-ray diffraction, and SEM-EDX.