Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide over K‐Promoted FeCo Bimetallic Catalysts Prepared from Mixed Metal Oxalates

Abstract The hydrogenation of carbon dioxide over K‐promoted FeCo bimetallic catalysts prepared by sequential oxalate decomposition and carburization of FeCo with CO was studied in a fixed‐bed reactor at 240 °C and 1.2 MPa. The initial CO 2 conversion was found to be dependent on K loading, whereas both unpromoted and K‐promoted FeCo catalysts (except 90Fe10Co3.0K) exhibited similar levels of CO 2 conversion after a few hours of time on stream. A decarburization study on freshly activated and used FeCo suggests that potassium increases the stability of iron carbides and graphitic carbon under a reducing atmosphere. Also, K addition tends to decrease the hydrogenation function of FeCo bimetallic catalysts and, thus, controls product selectivity. Under similar CO 2 conversions, potassium enhanced acetic acid formation while suppressing ethanol production, which indicates that a common intermediate might be responsible for the changes observed with C 2 oxygenates.