CO2 hydrogenation to methanol at pressures up to 950 bar

• New continuous gas–liquid-microreactor systems, which runs up to 950 bar.
• Up to 15 times higher MeOH STY (space time yield) measured at 950 bar compared to 30 bar.
• 42% smaller MeOH STY from the CO2/H2-to-MeOH reaction compared to the conventional one.
• Energy efficiency of the CO2/H2-to-MeOH process is almost pressure independent.
• CO2/H2-to-MeOH process needs 26% higher energy input compared to conventional one.

The methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation is of great interest because it offers a way to mitigate the anthropogenic CO2 emissions and gives the opportunity to produce methanol from renewable and recyclable feedstock. Methanol is a key component in the chemical industry and can serve as fuel. In this work the high pressure approach of the transformation of CO2 to methanol is investigated based on the energy balance for the production of 1 Mt methanol per year from air-captured CO2 and hydrogen from water electrolysis. The energy efficiency is almost pressure independent and is comparable to literature values. The energy consumption for the compression of CO2 and H2 accounts only for 26% of the total energy consumption. Experimental investigations of the CO2 hydrogenation at 950 bar show up to 15 times larger methanol space time yields (STYmethanol) compared to literature values where CO2 was hydrogenated to methanol at 30 bar.

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