Effect of Catalyst Synthesis Parameters on the Performance of CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol over SBA-15 Supported Cu/ZnO-Based Catalysts

Abstract

Bimetallic Cu-ZnO-based catalyst were systematically prepared via impregnation technique under controlled synthesis conditions of active metal loading, ratio of active metal Cu:Zn and synthesis pH. The effect of the synthesis condition on the performance of the Cu-ZnO supported catalysts with respect to the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol in micro-activity fixed-bed reactor at 250°C, 2.25 MPa, and 75% H2/25%CO2 ratio. The synthesized catalysts were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and temperature programmed desorption, reduction, oxidation and pulse chemisorption (TPDRO) and the surface area determination was also performed. The results demonstrate that the catalytic structure, activity, and methanol selectivity was strongly affected by the synthesis parameters. Increasing of synthesis pH from 1 to 7 shows better metal particles distribution, Cu desperation of 29%, higher BET surface area as well as Cu surface area, while further increasing on pH revealed on particles agglomeration and weak metal-support interaction. In addition, increasing of the active metal loading from 5 to 15 % resulted in dramatic increase in the conversion of CO2 and methanol production while further increase caused lower catalytic performance. Moreover, catalyst with total loading of 15%, Cu:Zn ratio of 70:30 synthesized at pH of 7 exhibit higher catalytic activity of 14%, methanol selectivity of 92%, and TOF of 1.24×103 s-1 compared with other catalyst prepared under various conditions