Tailor-Made Zeolitic Water Nanochannels for Liquid Fuel Production

Abstract

Conversion of CO2 into valuable liquid fuels or other chemicals has been one of the attractive ways for effective utilization of CO2 produced by burning fossil fuels. However, this task is challenging due to the difficulties associated with the chemical inertness of CO2. In addition to research efforts devoted to the development of more active and selective catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation reaction, removing the by-product water from the system is proven beneficial for improving the reaction thermodynamics and kinetics toward desirable products. Therefore, highly water-selective membranes able to operate under reaction conditions like high temperature and pressure have long been pursued. In a recent study, Yu et al. reported a zeolite membrane with gas-impeding water-conduction nanochannels that selectively remove by-product water from CO2 dehydrogenation process, greatly enhancing CO2 conversion and methanol yield.