Huidong Xu

PhD Student

Catalysis Research Center and Chemistry Department

Technische Universität München

Lichtenbergstraße 4 85747 Garching, Germany

Curriculum

Hydrogenation of CO₂ to Methanol under Dynamic Reaction Conditions: A Novel Concept for Carbon Capture and Utilization

Increasing emissions of CO₂ are associated with environmental challenges such as ocean acidification and climate change. Despite being a greenhouse gas, CO₂ is an abundant and nontoxic carbon source, providing an alternative pathway to produce value-added products. Catalytic CO₂ conversion to value-added fuels and chemicals has become one of the most practical CO₂ mitigation approaches, especially utilizing H₂ from renewable sources. In this project, the conversion of CO₂, bound to base-functionalized adsorbents, with hydrogen to methanol will be studied. The dynamic processes of the CO₂ capture call for novel concepts, which directly link the regeneration of the CO₂ absorbent with the hydrogenation of CO₂ to valuable chemicals such as methanol. The realization of this concept requires the preparation and characterization of novel materials with sorptive and catalytic functionalities, the understanding of the surface chemistry, of the interaction of transport and reaction kinetics. Based on the close cooperation of the three research Groups from TUM, KIT, and University Leipzig, all these goals can be achieved in this collaboration project, and a novel concept for the capture of CO₂ under dynamic conditions with renewable hydrogen can be developed and evaluated.

Publications