The Role of Support Morphology on the Performance of Cu/ZnO-catalyst for hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol

The effects of SBA-15 support morphology on the activity of Cu/ZnO catalyst in the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol was investigated. In the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol at 210 degrees C, 2.25 MPa, H-2/CO2 ratio of three remarkable difference was obtained using Cu/ZnO catalyst supported on SBA-15 with different morphology. The catalysts were characterized using N-2-adsorption, field emission scanning microscopy (FESEM/EDX), transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). Characterization of the catalyst showed that support morphology, surface area, metals dispersion, and reducibility influenced the catalytic performance. On the fiber-shaped SBA-15, copper dispersion was 29 % whereas on the spherical-shaped SBA-15, the dispersion was 20 %. The experimental results showed that the catalyst supported over fiber-shaped SBA-15 exhibit higher CO2 conversion (13.96 %) and methanol selectivity (91.32 %) compare to catalyst supported over spherical-shaped SBA-15.