CO2 conversion in a photocatalytic continuous membrane reactor

Abstract

The reduction of CO₂ with water by using photocatalysts is one of the most promising new methods for achieving CO₂ conversion to valuable hydrocarbons such as methanol (MeOH). In this work, prepared TiO₂–Nafion™-based membranes were used in a photocatalytic membrane reactor, operated in continuous mode, for converting CO₂ to methanol. By using the membrane with the best TiO₂ distribution, a MeOH flow rate/TiO₂ weight of 45 μmol (g_catalyst h)⁻¹ was measured when operating at 2 bar of feed pressure. This value is higher than those reported in most of the literature data to date. Moreover, methanol production is considered as a relevant advance over the existing literature results which mostly propose CH₄ as the reaction product.