Hydrogenation of CO and CO2 toward methanol, alcohols and hydrocarbons on promoted copper rare earth oxides catalysts

The recent development of a copper-rare earth oxid catalyst (Cu-La2Zr2O7) with cubic pyrochlore structure allows to synthesize alcohols and hydrocarbons from CO + H-2 and CO2 + H-2 feeds. A good activity in methanol synthesis is obtained by promoting the given catalysts by addition of oxides, e.g., ZnO or ZrO2. C2+ alcohols and C2+ hydrocarbons are formed in the presence of a transition metal promotor like Co. Finally, a composite catalyst prepared by mixing the Cu-La2Zr2O7 methanol catalyst with a HY zeolite yields mainly C2+ hydrocarbons.