Effective tri-metallic TiO2 supported catalyst for hydrocarbon production from carbon dioxide

The current socio-economic issues with concerns on environmental quality and global warming are attributed to high concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide due to extensive usage of fossil fuels. Thus, over the last two decades, comprehensive work has been reported on carbon capture and storage and catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide to hydrocarbons. Among these, the reactions with hydrocarbons to form value-added products have been in focus. In this work, an attempt was made to identify the feasibility of the reaction: carbon dioxide and steam to form hydrocarbons of fuel value. After reviewing the literature on the development of various catalysts and their mechanism, a multi-metallic catalyst supported by TiO₂ Nano-needles was explored. The reaction mechanism is expected to proceed with activated CO₂ complex and hydroxyl groups over the metal oxide catalyst. Current reported work on CO₂ and Hydrogen proceeds with activated CO₂ and protons over the catalyst. The characterization techniques mainly XPS, XRD, TGA, FESEM-EDAX, FTIR, and NMR were used to analyze the catalyst activity and to confirm the products formed. The reaction is found to yield methanol and oxygen only. However, the conversion is found to be 0.4% - 3.8% in the temperature range 350°C to 550°C. The reaction of CO₂ with hydroxyl groups from water vapor can be effective as an alternative to the reaction with protons from hydrogen.