Catalyst synthesis by continuous coprecipitation under micro-fluidic conditions: Application to the preparation of catalysts for methanol synthesis from CO2/H2

•We investigate the synthesis method effect on CuO-ZnO-ZrO2 catalysts.•Continuous coprecipitation provides a much more homogeneous and repeatable catalyst.•CO2 hydrogenation into methanol was performed with CuO-ZnO-ZrO2 catalysts.•Better methanol productivity was obtained.

A new method of synthesis based on micro-fluidic continuous coprecipitation has been used to prepare CuO-ZnO-ZrO2 catalyst. The catalytic behavior was then investigated for CO2 hydrogenation into methanol and compared with a CuO-ZnO-ZrO2 catalyst prepared by classical coprecipitation and with the same amount of Cu0 (30%). The novel synthesis method allows a better repeatability and homogeneity of the catalyst which leads to the best methanol productivity of 486 gMeOH kgcata−1 h−1 at 280 °C under 50 bar and a GHSV of 10,000 h−1.

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