Effect of Zr Addition on Catalytic Performance of Cu-Zn-Al Oxides for CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol

A series of 50% CuO-25%ZnO-25%Al(Zr) oxide catalysts was synthesized by a reverse co-precipitation method and characterized by XRD, N-2 adsorption-desorption, H-2-TPR, H-2-TPD and CO2-TPD, and used as catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol under mild conditions(200-260 degrees C and 1-3 MPa). Consequently, H-2-TPR exhibited that the dispersed CuO species increased with the zirconium content, while the H-2-TPD showed that small amount of zirconia can increase the H-2 desorption amount. As a result, Cat-2 and Cat-3 exhibited an enhanced H-2-spillover effect, the most H-2 desorption amount, which showed an optimum activity of about 7% methanol yield.