Development of Catalyst for Methanol Production

This research will be focusing on preliminary development studies on catalyst
that can help to increase the selectivity and yield of methanol production. Over recent
years, the research for methanol production via catalytic routes have extensively
studied by the researchers. Thus, this project paper covers the development of catalyst
for methanol production by using aluminium oxide (Al2O3) at different type of
promoters which are un-promoted, single promoter (Niobium) and double promoter
(Niobium and Zirconium) and to synthesize the Cu/ZnO catalyst at different type of
supports which are silicon carbide (SiC), Santa Barbara amorphous silica (SBA-15)
and aluminium oxide (Al2O3). The characteristics of the catalyst are studied using
SEM, EDX, TPR, and TGA. The characteristics of the catalyst depended on the type
of support and promoters which influenced the catalytic performances. In order to
investigate the effect of the mentioned catalysts, the hydrogenation of CO2 is
performed in the micro-activity fixed bed reactors and stirred high-pressure slurry
reactor at 523.15K, 2.25MPa and a H2/CO2 ration of 3:1. The results of the reactor
performances were find out that the methanol selectivity of using Al2O3 as catalyst
support incorporated with Niobium and Zirconium as promoters has the highest value
which is 71.61% methanol selectivity.