CO2 Hydrogenation to Methanol over Copper Catalysts: Learning from Syngas Conversion

Much of the seminal work on the fundamentals of methanol synthesis from syngas over Cu/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 catalysts was carried out by Spencer and co-workers. Their work addressed key questions relating to the reaction mechanism and the nature of the active sites. The findings of these studies, many of which have since been validated and refined using modern computational and experimental techniques, are now informing the selection and design of catalyst systems for CO 2 utilisation by hydrogenation to methanol.