Conversion of Carbon Dioxide from Air into Methanol

      

Carbon dioxide is released in the air from various industries, power plants and vehicles. CO2 emission is the leading cause of global warming. The ways to curb carbon emissions have always puzzled scientists from all over the world. A novel method has been recently developed which aims to curb carbon dioxide released from the industries and convert into methanol.

Researchers from University of Southern California have demonstrated that the captured carbon dioxide can be converted into methanol in the presence of molecular hydrogen with the help of homogeneous catalyst. The production of methanol is attractive because of its potential for use as an alternative fuel and for hydrogen storage. These reactions require high temperatures (around 150℃) and unfortunately heat often causes the decomposition of the catalyst[1].

In another study, the researchers have developed a stable catalyst based on metal ruthenium which does not decompose at high temperature. With this catalyst, up to 79% of carbon dioxide from the air can be converted into methanol and water. Water can be easily separated out by distillation.

Recently, researchers from Penn State University (USA) and Dalian University of Technology (China) have improved CO2 to methanol conversion process by using a catalyst which is a combination of copper and palladium. The copper-palladium combination yields the most efficient conversion of CO2 into methanol if the atomic ratio of copper to palladium is in between 0.3 to 0.4. Nanoparticles of the catalyst are dispersed on a porous support material so that the surface area of the catalyst increases greatly. This formulation increased the rate of methanol formation by three times the rate with palladium alone and by four times the rate with copper alone. The combination of the two metals provides an alternative reaction pathway and also lowers the energy requirements for the reaction of CO2 and H2 to produce more methanol with higher energy efficiency.

The reaction takes place in a packed bed reactor operating at 180-250℃. In a single pass the maximum conversion is 24%, but the unconverted reactants are recycled and returned to the vessel[2].

References:
1. https://phys.org/news/2016-01-carbon-dioxide-captured-air-methanol.html
2. https://www.chemengonline.com/co2-to-methanol/?printmode=1
Location: India

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