Plasma‐Assisted Synthesis of Methanol Through Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide With Non‐Noble Metal Mixed Oxide Catalysts
Deepa Choudhry, Matthew R. Winburn, Suchit Sarin, R.J. Chimentão, Chin Li Cheung
Abstract
Abstract The utilization of carbon dioxide through chemical conversion is a promising approach for the recycling of carbon resources. Despite well‐developed industrial processes for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol, the effective use of CO 2 as a feedstock remains challenging because of the costly requirements of high temperature and reaction pressure. In this paper, we report the methanol synthesis from CO 2 and hydrogen using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor under atmospheric pressure with a nickel‐cerium‐aluminum mixed oxide (Ni/Ce−Al MOx) catalyst. The combined use of plasma and the Ni/Ce−Al MOx catalyst was observed to yield 13.3±0.4 % of methanol, favorably compared to the 2.6±0.5 % yield of the case without catalyst. Microscopy images, selected area electron diffraction patterns, and energy‐dispersive X‐ray analysis confirmed the presence of fluorite‐structured ceria, aluminium, nickel, and nickel oxide particles in the catalyst. The reaction mechanism for the plasma‐assisted hydrogenation of CO 2 was hypothesized to involve a carbide formation pathway due to the presence of carbide confirmed by X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopic characterization.