CO₂ Hydrogenation to Methanol at Low Temperature

Abstract

Enabling CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol at lower temperatures is one of the key towards carbon recycling and realization of methanol economy. This is due to the favourable thermodynamics of the reaction at lower temperature (<200 ℃) and possibility to fully convert CO₂ to methanol in one pass through a catalytic reactor. We have recently reported two types of catalysts, TiO₂-supported Re (Re/TiO₂; 1 wt% Re) and MoO_x/TiO₂-supported Pt (Pt/MoO_x/TiO₂; 3 wt% Pt, 30 wt% MoO₃) which show high activity in the reaction under a mild condition (150 ℃; p_CO2 = 1 MPa; p_H2 = 5 MPa) in batch operation. In particular, Pt/MoO_x/TiO₂ reached the equilibrium yield of methanol under the condition tested in our study. Here, we describe our recent efforts on the CO₂ hydrogenation to methanol at low temperatures.