CO2 is a major greenhouse gas, contributing to global warming and climate change. The conversion of CO2 to higher value fuels and chemicals has been identified as a key element of a future sustainable low carbon economy. CO2 hydrogenation to methanol is one of the most promising processes for CO2 conversion. Despite a well-developed route for CO hydrogenation to methanol, the use of CO2 as a feedstock for methanol synthesis remains underexplored, and one of its major challenges is high reaction pressure (usually 30-300 atm). In this talk, we report a novel plasma-catalytic process for the synthesis of methanol from CO2 hydrogenation at atmospheric pressure and room temperature (30 oC). The maximum methanol yield of 11. 3% and methanol selectivity of 53.7% were achieved over a Cu/Al2O3 catalyst with a CO2 conversion of 21.2% in the plasma process. This result has successfully demonstrated that this unique plasma process offers a promising route for lowering the kinetic barrier of catalytic CO2 hydrogenation to methanol instead of using traditional approaches (e.g. high reaction temperature and high-pressure process).

Plasma-driven hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol at atmospheric pressure and room temperature

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.