Methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation over copper based catalysts

A series of Cu-ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts prepared by coprecipitation were used for methanol synthesis by CO2 hydrogenation in a fixed bed reactor system. The effect of the catalysts composition and the reaction temperature on the catalytic activity was investigated. The main results show that the highest CO2 conversion and the best yield of methanol are obtained with the catalyst containing 51 wt% Cu and 22 wt% Zn. This result is assigned to the highest metallic copper surface area and to the interaction between copper and zinc oxide. However, the reaction temperature increase is disadvantageous for the methanol synthesis reaction.