Influence of rare-earth elements (La, Ce, Nd and Pr) on the performance of Cu/Zn/Zr catalyst for CH3OH synthesis from CO2

A series of Cu/Zn/Zr (CZZ) catalysts with different rare earth elements (La, Ce, Nd and Pr) were prepared by coprecipitation method and tested for CO2 hydrogenation to methanol. The influence of modifier (La, Ce,Nd and Pr) on the physicochemical properties of CZZ catalysts was studied. The results of catalytic test reveal that CO2 conversion was correlated to the introduction of different promoters. The introduction of La and Ce favors the production of methanol, and Nd and Pr modified CZZ catalysts show relative low activity compared with the reference CZZ catalyst. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.