Continuous synthesis of methanol: heterogeneous hydrogenation of ethylene carbonate over Cu/HMS catalysts in a fixed bed reactor system

Abstract

Continuous fixed-bed catalytic hydrogenation of ethylene carbonate (EC) to methanol and ethylene glycol (EG), an emerging synthetic process of methanol via indirect conversion of CO₂, was successfully performed over Cu/HMS catalysts prepared by the ammonia evaporation (AE) method. The catalysts possessed superb performance with a conversion of 100% and a selectivity to methanol of 74%.