Preparation of high performance Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst for methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation by coprecipitation-reduction

A novel coprecipitation-reduction process has been proposed for preparing highly selective Cu/ ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts,for, methanol synthesis from CO2 hydrogenation. Compared to the catalysts prepared by the conventional method, the new catalysts prepared via the new method exhibit much higher BET surface area and pore size, much smaller crystallite size and higher catalytic activity and selectivity in CO2 hydrogen aition to methanol. It is also found that the molar ratio of Cu+ to Cu-0 on the surface of the catalyst obtained by coprecipitation-reduction is much higher than that on the reduced catalyst obtained by the conventional method which could be crucial for its high activity and selectivity for catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol.