Three dimensional porous Cu-Zn/Al foam monolithic catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol in microreactor

•A new method of combining catalyst and microreactor in CO2 hydrogenation to methanol system is investigated.•A Cu-Zn/Al foam monolithic catalyst is developed, characterised and analysed.•Process intensification is achieved with microreactor and high yield and selectivity of methanol are obtained.

CO2 hydrogenation turns to be an attractive pathway of C1 conversion. For CO2 hydrogenation to methanol, a novel method was investigated for the preparation of layer structured Cu-Zn/Al foam monolithic catalyst integrated with microreactor. Such a monolithic catalyst could be loaded in a flange-type microreactor in the form of packed bed to intensify the process. As a result, a high copper time yield of methanol, 7.81 g gCu−1 h−1, was obtained at 250 °C, 3 MPa and 20000 mL gcat−1 h−1 due to the heat/mass-transfer properties with microreactor. Besides, the monolithic catalyst showed a good ability of adhesion.

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (85KB)Download full-size image