The conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbons is a hydrogenation reaction. The hydrogenation reaction may be carried out in the present of a heterogeneous catalyst, e.g., using a traditional Fischer− Tropsch Co− Pt/Al2O3 catalyst for the production of hydrocarbon materials or hydrogenation reaction utilizing electrocatalytic conversion of CO2 to hydrocarbons.

The reactor design is similar as the common catalytic hydrogenation based reaction (e.g. benzene to cyclohexane) in the case of using heterogeneous catalyst. However, the reaction conditions (temperature and pressure) depend on the catalyst used in the hydrogenation reaction.

The hydrogenation of CO2 to hydrocarbons using photocatalyst is almost similar to electrod based reactor system in a hydrogenation reaction,

Dear Colleague Mehri Sanati,

thank you for your kind answer. I should just mentioned the background of our work and my question:

We have worked in the past (mid seventies to the end eighties) on CO-based Fischer- Tropsch synthesis. The raction was cairried out in catalytic fixed bed reactors with and without recyle. Moreover, we had done some work on respective catalyst structure and texture. With respect to envronmental issues we had a project supported by industry on catalyst development for CO2 conversion to hydrocarbons (ChemCatChem 2013) and very recently we submitted a paper on economic assessment of this reaction along with a flow sheet and detailed cost estimattion (a prepublication will appear in the internet in march/april and the printed paper in May 2014.

Thse latter studies were done for a conventional fixed-bed reactor. My question targeted on new reactor concepts which you certainly offered. I think, however, that these concepts are more suited for small-scale operation while we are looking for large-scale operation related to fuel and feedstock production as done in refinery industry. Nevertheless, I will take close look on the various alternatives that you offered. Thank you so much.

I will contact you if detaied questions arise.

Dear Vignesh Prakasam:

I refer to my answer to Dr. Mehri Sanati, from which you can derive the background of our work. The publicaton you cited and which I downloaded from the internet is mainly concerned with catalysis and not catalytic reaction engineering. Neverthe less, I will use it as a lead to related papers. - Than you very much for your interest.

Manfred

Has got to be a fixed bed rector or a a reactor in which the catalyst is fluidized, and may recirculate. To elucidate which reactor should it be one has to design it, based on the specific kinetics, which are linked to the catalyst.