Methanol production from CO 2 via an integrated, formamide-assisted approach

URANGA, JORGE G.; GOPAKUMAR, ASWIN; PFISTER, TIM; IMANZADE, GUNAY; LOMBARDO, LORIS; GASTELU, GABRIELA; ZÜTTEL, ANDREAS; DYSON, PAUL J.

Sustainable Energy & Fuels

Royal Society of Chemistry

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2020 vol. 4 p. 1773 - 1779

The synthesis of fuels from CO2 has made tremendous progress in recent years, although practicalapplications remain limited. Herein, we describe a cyclic process that produces MeOH from CO2 viaformamide intermediates, which are initially reduced using NaBH4 to form methanol and concomitantlyrelease the corresponding amine, from which the formamide is subsequently regenerated in thepresence of CO2/NaBH4. By tuning the substituents on the formamide/amine, the selectivity of bothsteps can be controlled, allowing the process to proceed in high yields, either in two separate steps or ina single step process. The observed trends in reactivity were rationalized with a resonance model of theformamide, which supports the observed trends in reactivity, and further consolidated by spectroscopyand calculations