A promising low pressure methanol synthesis route from CO2 hydrogenation over Pd@Zn core–shell catalysts. Issue 1 (14th November 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liao, Fenglin; Wu, Xin-Ping; Zheng, Jianwei; Li, Molly Meng-Jung; Kroner, Anna; Zeng, Ziyan; Hong, Xinlin; Yuan, Youzhu; Gong, Xue-Qing; Tsang, Shik Chi Edman
• Is Part Of: Green chemistry. Volume 19:Issue 1(2017)
• Page Start: 270
• Page End: 280
• Publication Date: 2016-11-14
• Subjects: Environmental chemistry -- Industrial applications -- Periodicals; Environmental management -- Periodicals; 660
• DOI: 10.1039/c6gc02366e
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1463-9262

Abstract

Abstract : We report a new Pd@Zn core–shell catalyst that offers a significantly higher kinetic barrier to CO/H2 O formation in CO2 hydrogenation but facilitates CH3 OH production at below 2 MPa with CH3 OH selectivity at 70% as compared to 10% over Cu catalysts. Abstract : At present, there is no low pressure methanol synthesis from CO2 /H2 with high yield despite the presence of an upstream process of aqueous phase reforming (APR) of biomass derivatives on an industrial scale for CO2 /H2 production at ca. 2 MPa. This is due to the intrinsic thermodynamics of the system which leads to particularly high CO levels at low pressure through reversed water gas shift reaction (RWGS) for most studied catalysts. Here we report a new Pd@Zn core–shell catalyst that offers a significantly higher kinetic barrier to CO/H2 O formation in CO2 hydrogenation to reduce the CO levels but facilitates CH3 OH formation at or below 2 MPa with CH3 OH selectivity maintained at ca. 70% compared to ca. 10% over industrial Cu catalysts. The corresponding methanol yield at 2 MPa reaches 6.1 gmethanol gactive metal −1 h −1, which is comparable to the best reported value among a wide variety of catalysts under 5 MPa. It is thus believed that this active Pd based catalyst opens up a promising possibility for low pressure and temperature methanol production using a renewable biomass resource for fossil-fuel-starved countries.