Developing Industrial Methanol Catalysts: Using Lab-Scale Understanding to Optimize a Well-Known Process

In industry a ternary Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃catalyst is used for the large-scale production of methanol.  This contribution illustrates the whole work-flow from models of precipitation, advanced characterization, kinetic/mechanistic considerations, high-throughput material screening towards simulation & optimization of catalyst application to yield an industrial, high performance methanol catalyst for different industrial reactor set-ups.