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Thermo–Photo Catalysis for Methanol Synthesis from Syngas
journal contribution
posted on 2019-11-14, 21:29 authored by Xuechen Wu, Junyu Lang, Yueyue Jiang, Yan Lin, Yun Hang HuIt is well-known that the synthesis of methanol from
syngas is
based on thermal catalysis (TC). However, in this work, light was
introduced into the thermal catalytic process, creating a novel thermo–photo
catalysis (TPC) for methanol production from syngas over a Cu/Zn/Al
catalyst. It was demonstrated that the yield of methanol from the
TPC process was 2.8 times that from the TC process at a catalyst temperature
of 350 °C. Unlike the general recognition that the catalytic
performance is mainly dependent on the temperature of the catalyst
surface, TPC is also greatly influenced by the reactant temperature.
The yield of methanol was enhanced 3.3 times by increasing the reactant
temperature from 93 to 260 °C at a constant catalyst-surface
temperature of 350 °C. Furthermore, although Cu+ is
the active site for thermal catalysis, Cu++ plays an important
role in thermo–photo catalysis. This work provides insights
into the synergistic effect of thermal energy and photoenergy in thermo–photo
catalytic syngas conversion.