CO2-to-fuels pathway is taking place in the last decade, due to the possibility of revaluating CO2, no longer as a waste, but as a valuable reagent. For this reason, there is a growing interest around the methanol production technology based on CO2 hydrogenation, where the feedstocks are either captured or biogenic CO2 and green H2 (e.g. produced from no-fossil pathways such as electrolysis fed by renewables sources). In this context, this work is focused on a novel impregnation-sol-gel autocombustion combined approach that, through a cheap thermal decomposition in air atmosphere, results in a high-performing Cu0 /CuO-based catalyst, already active without any pre-treatment, for methanol synthesis by CO2 hydrogenation. The product – international patent application – differently from common catalysts that must be activated before their use through the conventional reduction using hydrogen at high temperature for several hours, does not require such a procedure, with evident advantages in terms of operating costs, energy consumption, plant availability and safety issues.
