The critical role of intrinsic physicochemical properties of catalysts for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol: A state of the art review

Catalytic hydrogenation is one of the most innovative techniques for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) by converting it into beneficial products such as methanol (CH3OH). CH3OH is an alternative fuel that offers a practical, effective, and efficient solution to the energy storage problem. Despite the significant advances in the CO2 hydrogenation process, developing an appropriate and efficient catalytic system remains a significant obstacle and challenge. Many review papers on catalyst development for CO2 hydrogenation have been published, focusing on the influence of transition, noble metal-based catalysts, and process parameter. However, present knowledge of the mutually reinforcing correlations between catalytic properties and CO2 hydrogenation activity has to be enhanced. It is very important to have a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between catalytic performance and physicochemical properties in order to create a catalytic system that is both highly efficient and economically viable for commercialization. Therefore, the focus of this review is on the synergistic interactions between catalytic CO2 hydrogenation activity and catalytic properties such as porosity, surface area, metal-support interaction, metal dispersion, oxygen vacancies, metal particle size, reducibility, and chemical composition acidity/basicity. Furthermore, this review examined and compared the most up-to-date findings on the hydrogenation of CO2 to CH3OH using various heterogeneous catalysts. It also discussed the challenges and prospects for improving CH3OH production by CO2 hydrogenation. Researchers and environmentalists in academia and industry who are interested in finding ways to reduce CO2 emissions will find this overview to be a valuable resource.