Overview
- A Korea Institute of Energy Research team developed a copper–magnesium–iron mixed oxide catalyst that drives the reverse water–gas shift reaction efficiently at about 400 °C.
- In tests, the catalyst delivered a CO formation rate of 223.7 μmol·gcat⁻¹·s⁻¹ with a 33.4% CO yield and maintained stable operation for more than 100 hours.
- Performance exceeded commercial copper by roughly 1.7× in formation rate and 1.5× in yield, and outpaced platinum benchmarks by about 2.2× and 1.8×, respectively.
- A layered double hydroxide structure with Fe and Mg suppresses copper particle agglomeration, improving thermal stability and enabling selective CO production without methane byproducts.
- Real-time infrared analysis indicates direct conversion of CO2 to CO on the catalyst surface, and the team says it will pursue scale-up toward industrial application for synthetic-fuel feedstocks.