Assessment of different kinetic models of carbon dioxide transformation to methanol via hydrogenation, over a Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst

In the work presented here, the feasibility study of the methanol production from pure CO2 and H2 has been conducted. This study focused on investigation of the previous kinetic models used for methanol synthesis by hydrogenation process at different processing conditions such as: pressure, temperature, catalyst loading and molar ratio of H2 to CO2 to select the best one. The results showed that, the combined rate expression containing both CO and CO2 hydrogenation terms would result in the better yield. Besides, it was found that the reactor containing recycle mood ensures a higher efficiency up to 65% methanol yield at the range of (200–250 °C) and 50 bar. The kinetic model based on CO and CO2 hydrogenation along with the proposed configuration showed the reasonable methanol yield in a practical methanol plant as much as 41%.