Methanol Synthesis at a Wide Range of H /CO Ratios over a Rh-In Bimetallic Catalyst.

There is increasing interest in capturing H generated from renewables with CO to produce methanol. However, renewable hydrogen production is expensive and in limited quantity compared to CO . Excess CO and limited H in the feedstock gas is not favorable for CO hydrogenation to methanol, causing low activity and poor methanol selectivity. Now, a class of Rh-In catalysts with optimal adsorption properties to the intermediates of methanol production is presented. The Rh-In catalyst can effectively catalyze methanol synthesis but inhibit the reverse water-gas shift reaction under H -deficient gas flow and shows the best competitive methanol productivity under industrially applicable conditions in comparison with reported values. This work demonstrates a strong potential of Rh-In bimetallic composition, from which a convenient methanol synthesis based on flexible feedstock compositions (such as H /CO from biomass derivatives) with lower energy cost can be established.