Highly effective conversion of carbon dioxide to valuable compounds on composite catalysts

The highly effective catalytic conversion of CO₂ into valuable compounds was investigated by multi-functional catalysts composed of base-metal oxides as the main components promoted by a low concentration of precious metals and gallium oxide. The desired reduced state of catalyst metal oxides for exhibiting the optimum catalytic performance could be controlled by both the hydrogen spillover on the precious metal parts and the inverse-spillover from the Ga parts. By applying those principal concepts in the catalyst structure-design, the rapid CO₂ reforming of methane, the rapid CO₂ methanation, the effective synthesis of methanol and/or ethanol from CO₂ and H₂, and selective syntheses of high quality gasoline and/or light olefins by means of one-pass conversion of CO₂-H₂ mixture via methanol as the intermediate product, were respectively realized. Those novel catalytic reactions would have a high potential to moderate the accumulation of CO₂ come from fossil fuel combustion, while compensating the cost of hydrogen as the reducing reagent.