New technologies aimed to reduce the huge amounts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and their environmental impacts would only succeed if the product resulting from the transformation of CO2 is demanded in high quantities, as for instance, methanol. In this context, we have undertaken a systematic study of the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 into methanol with Ga-doped Cu/ZnO/ZrO2 catalysts. The detailed characterization of these systems reveals that the abundance of surface Cu and the amount of metallic Cu0 increases with Ga2O3 loading. These features are responsible for a selectivity enhancement in CH3OH synthesis from CO2/H2 mixtures. Furthermore, the reaction kinetic analysis shows that the production of CH3OH is increased at high temperatures by increasing H2 pressure. These results are very important for the development and implementation of highly active industrial catalysts for the synthesis of methanol from CO2 and H2.

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation(MICINN, project ENE2010-15381 and project CENIT-CO2) and the Madrid Regional Government (S2009/ENE-1743). JMGC and RML acknowledge MICINN (Formación de Profesorado Universitario programme, FPU) and Madrid Regional Government, respectively, for PhD grants. M. Ojeda is also grateful to the MICINN for a Ramon y Cajal contract (RYC-2010-06067).

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