The influence of gas impurities on the performance of In 2 O 3 /ZrO 2 catalysts for CO 2 hydrogenation to methanol

Abstract

An In2O3-based catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol recently showed high methanol productivity at 300 C and stability for over 1000 h time-onstream. With regard to an industrial application of In2O3/ZrO2 catalysts the robustness of the catalyst in operation with industrial process gas is of importance. Especially CO2 from industrial sources contains gaseous impurities like sulfur and nitrogen compounds and hydrocarbons. In this work, for the first time the performance of an In2O3/ZrO2 catalyst for CO2 hydrogenation is investigated while taking tech. relevant gas impurities into account. In detail, the influence of SO2, H2S, NO2, NH3, and hydrocarbons on the catalyst performance were examined in a typical fixed-bed apparatus under industrially established conditions. CHNS elemental anal. allowed to determine the amount of sulfur, nitrogen, and carbon bound to the catalyst after poisoning. For the poisoned and non-poisoned catalysts, their interaction with the reactants of methanol synthesis was investigated in detail by CO2-TPD and H2-TPR measurements. If changes were observed, the catalysts were further examined by XPS to identify potential poisoning species on the catalyst.