CO2 hydrogenation to methanol on ZnO-ZrO2 solid solution catalysts with ordered mesoporous structure

Abstract

CO2 hydrogenation to methanol is becoming a potential route for reducing CO2 emission, benefiting from the worldwide growth of renewable energy for H2 production. In this work, the ZnO-ZrO2 solid solution catalysts with ordered mesoporous structure were constructed by the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process using triblock copolymer P123 as the template. The 20% ZnO-ZrO2 catalyst prepared by the evaporation-induced self-assembly process shows a methanol formation rate of 22.1 mmol·h-1·gcat-1 at 320°C, 5.5 MPa, which is 1.35 times that of the catalyst prepared by co-precipitation. Characterizations prove that the EISA catalysts have larger specific surface areas and more sites for the activation of CO2 and H2, which are related to the higher CO2 conversion.