Synthesis, characterization and screening of nano-supported catalysts for CO & CO2 reduction

一些工业过程在原材料转化过程中排放二氧化碳（CO2）。捕获和储存二氧化碳是减少大气中二氧化碳的最新策略之一。目前，有几个正在进行的研究工作，希望在不久的将来在这一领域获得预期的结果。然而，保留大量二氧化碳的想法并不是很有吸引力，除非二氧化碳被转化成一些不可用的形式。在这个拟议的项目中，阿尔伯塔大学和SBI生物能源公司将共同开发和筛选纳米负载催化剂，用于低温还原CO和CO2为甲醇。将合成不同的纳米负载催化剂，充分表征并测试其对CO和CO2的还原作用。不同的催化剂将在SBI工厂合成。催化剂将被固定在阿尔伯塔大学的纳米载体上，并将使用x射线荧光（XRF）、气体吸附布鲁诺尔-埃米特-泰勒（BET）、透射电子显微镜（TEM）、x射线粉末衍射（XRD）、拉曼、傅里叶变换红外（FT-IR）、x射线光电子能谱（XPS）、热重分析（TGA）和原子力显微镜（AFM）技术。在SBI装置中，将研究装载量、压力和反应温度对CO和CO2还原的影响。

Several industrial processes emit carbon dioxide (CO2) during conversion of their raw materials. Capture and storage of CO2 is among the latest strategies to reduce atmospheric CO2. Currently, there are several ongoing research efforts with the hope of gaining expected results in this sector in near future. Nevertheless, the idea of retaining huge volumes of CO2 is not very appealing unless CO2 is transformed into some non-available forms. In this proposed project, University of Alberta and SBI bioenergy will work together to develop and screen nano-supported catalysts for low temperature reduction of CO and CO2 to methanol. Different nano-supported catalysts will be synthesized, fully characterized and tested for the reduction of CO & CO2. Different catalysts will be synthesized at SBI facility. The catalysts will be immobilized on nanocarriers at University of Alberta and structures of the synthesized/nano-immobilized catalysts, their surface properties such as pore size, pore volume, crystalline/amorphous content and bonding nature will be extensively investigated using X-ray fluorescence (XRF), gas sorption Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Raman, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), and Atomic-force microscopy (AFM) techniques at the university of Alberta. The effects of loading content, pressures and the reaction temperatures on CO & CO2 reduction will be investigated at SBI facility.