High pressure is known to boost CO₂-to-methanol conversion, but it also caused a problem until now: the liquid methanol produced coats the catalyst and blocks the reaction, capping productivity.
KHIMOD’s new technical white paper details two patented inventions that solve this problem. The first invention involves pushing gas velocity above a threshold, which strips the liquid film off the catalyst as it forms. This increases yield by more than tenfold using the same catalyst. This is an unusual case where increasing the speed of the reaction improves it instead of hindering it. The second invention recycles unreacted gas at full pressure with the liquid drained off by gravity. This keeps every gram of catalyst working at its best rate instead of trying to achieve full conversion in a single pass.
Both technologies rely on KHIMOD’s Heat Exchanger-Reactor, which is built to maintain pressure, velocity, and temperature control. This approach is already operational at THOR, KHIMOD’s e-methanol pilot plant located at its industrial site in Wissous. There, catalyst productivity exceeds 25 kg of methanol per kg of catalyst per hour, which is approximately four times higher than published laboratory references.
