Equilibrium-limited endothermic reactions play a crucial role in the transition toward a more sustainable chemical industry, but are typically plagued by the need for high operation temperatures (>500°C). Here, we show that the temperature gradients generated by the selective and localized heating of catalyst materials in a colder reactor environment shift the equilibrium of thermodynamically-limited endothermic reactions and improve their performance. In particular, the reverse water gas shift reaction and magnetic induction are selected as the model reaction and selective catalyst heating method, respectively. Magnetically induced catalysis using standard Cu-Al spinel-derived catalyst functionalized with carbon-coated iron nanoparticles enables high CO yield (up to 62%) at mild catalyst and reactor temperatures (estimated at 300°C and determined as 25-123°C, respectively). We demonstrate that the catalyst temperature and not the reactor temperature governs the equilibrium product composition of the rWGS, and that the temperature gradient promotes the in situ removal of water to shift the gas phase thermodynamic equilibrium. These two points synergistically result in a CO yield that would require a reactor temperature of 650°C in a conventionally heated gas phase reaction.
Hu et al. (2026) studied this question.