Carbon dioxide hydrogenation to form methanol via a reverse-water-gas-shift reaction (the CAMERE process)

Abstract

The CAMERE process (carbon dioxide hydrogenation to form methanol via a reverse-water-gas-shift reaction) was developed and evaluated. The reverse-water-gas-shift reactor and the methanol synthesis reactor were serially aligned to form methanol from CO2 hydrogenation. Carbon dioxide was converted to CO and water by the reverse-water-gas-shift reaction (RWReaction) to remove water before methanol was synthesized. With the elimination of water by RWReaction, the purge gas volume was minimized as the recycle gas volume decreased. Because of the minimum purge gas loss by the pretreatment of RWReactor, the overall methanol yield increased up to 89% from 69%. An active and stable catalyst with the composition of Cu/ ZnO/ZrO2/Ga2O3 (5:3:1:1) was developed. The system was optimized and compared with the commercial methanol synthesis processes from natural gas and coal.