A promising low pressure methanol synthesis route from CO2 hydrogenation over Pd@Zn core–shell catalysts

DOI: 10.1039/C6GC02366E

Authors: Edman Tsang (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford) , Fenglin Liao (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford) , Xin-Ping Wu (Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Centre for Computational Chemistry and Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology) , Jianwei Zheng (State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Production of Alcohols-Ethers-Esters, iChEM, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University) , Molly Meng-Jeng Li (Wolfson Catalysis Centre, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford) , Anna Kroner (Diamond Light Source) , Ziyan Zeng (Diamond Light Source) , Xinlin Hong (Diamond Light Source) , Youzhu Yuan (State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, National Engineering Laboratory for Green Chemical Production of Alcohols-Ethers-Esters, iChEM, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University) , Xue-Qing Gong (Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Centre for Computational Chemistry and Research Institute of Industrial Catalysis, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Green Chemistry

State: Published (Approved)
Published: October 2016

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 at 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 for CO/H2O formation in CO2 hydrogenation to reduce the CO levels but facilitates CH3OH formation at or below 2 MPa with CH3OH selectivity maintained at ca. 70% comparing to ca. 10% over industrial Cu catalyst. The corresponding methanol yield at 2 MPa reaches 6.1 g methanol/g active metal *h which is comparable with the best reported value among a wide variety of catalysts under 5 MPa. It is thus, believed this active Pd based catalyst opens up a promising possibility for low pressure and temperature methanol production using renewable biomass resource for fossil-fuels-starved countries.

Diamond Keywords: Biofuel

Subject Areas: Chemistry, Energy, Environment


Instruments: B18-Core EXAFS

Added On: 11/11/2016 14:16

Discipline Tags:

Bioenergy Earth Sciences & Environment Sustainable Energy Systems Energy Climate Change Physical Chemistry Catalysis Chemistry

Technical Tags:

Spectroscopy X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) Extended X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (EXAFS)