Selective CO2-Hydrogenation using a membrane reactor

We present a novel membrane reactor (MR) concept for CO2-hydrogenation to methanol application, in which CO2 is supplied from a CO2-rich gas stream via a membrane and is distributed along the catalytic packed bed, where it reacts with hydrogen over a CuO-ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst to produce methanol. The performance of the reactor was investigated using a set of two-fluid model simulations. The simulation results showed that the fine distribution of CO2 improved the selectivity of methanol production by a value of 6 % for the studied range of the operating conditions.