Assessment of the impact of water and methanol removal on the kinetics of methanol synthesis over CZA catalysts for sorption-enhanced applications

Process intensification, particularly for methanol synthesis from CO 2 , has attracted increasing attention through the development of reactors integrating in situ product removal. Most kinetic models currently available have been developed using data obtained from conventional reactors and were not designed for sorption-enhanced or membrane reactor configurations. Consequently, their applicability under product-depleting conditions remains uncertain, and no kinetic model specifically dedicated to such reactors is currently available. In this work, an experimental study is conducted under conditions of water and/or methanol depletion during methanol synthesis from CO 2 and H 2 . Kinetic models proposed by Graaf et al. (1988) (modified version), Park et al. (2014), Seidel et al. (2018), and Slotboom et al. (2020) are evaluated over a temperature range of 210 °C–270 °C and pressures between 23 and 46 bar. At 33 bar, satisfactory fitting of kinetic and sorption parameters is achieved for all models. Upon variation of pressure, the Graaf, Seidel, and Slotboom models retain good predictive capabilities, demonstrating their potential applicability for modeling methanol synthesis under product removal conditions.