Issue 14, 2024

Designing bifunctional catalysts for the one-pot conversion of CO2 to sustainable marine transportation fuels

Abstract

Meeting ambitious net-zero targets will require the replacement of marine fossil fuels with sustainable alternatives such as dimethyl ether (DME). DME is non-toxic, can be fully produced via a circular carbon economy and can be rapidly deployed due to its compatibility with existing liquid petroleum gas infrastructure. One-pot production of DME from CO2via a methanol intermediate is achieved by combining redox and Brønsted or Lewis acid sites. Herein, we have synthesised, characterised and tested a variety of bifunctional CuZnO/silicoaluminophosphate catalysts for the one-pot production of DME. A range of synthetic approaches were employed to combine the redox and acidic functionalities in order to derive synthesis–structure–property correlations to guide the design of improved catalysts. We found that a CuZnO/SAPO-34 catalyst made via impregnation and drying can achieve 80% DME selectivity with no detectable toxic CO by-product formation. High acid site abundance resulted in extensive dehydration of the intermediate methanol, which increased localised water production, suppressing the CO-forming reverse water gas shift reaction and thus yielding exceptional DME selectivity that is amongst the highest in literature.

Graphical abstract: Designing bifunctional catalysts for the one-pot conversion of CO2 to sustainable marine transportation fuels

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 Jan 2024
Accepted
02 Apr 2024
First published
02 Apr 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2024,14, 3853-3863

Designing bifunctional catalysts for the one-pot conversion of CO2 to sustainable marine transportation fuels

M. G. Walerowski, M. E. Potter, E. S. Burke, S. Kyrimis, L. Armstrong and R. Raja, Catal. Sci. Technol., 2024, 14, 3853 DOI: 10.1039/D4CY00020J

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