In the ongoing global transition toward carbon neutrality, converting carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into high-value platform chemicals represents a vital strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing industrial reliance on petroleum. Among these target products, light aromatics—specifically benzene, toluene, and xylenes (collectively known as BTX)—are crucial bulk feedstocks for polymers, resins, and synthetic fibers. However, direct CO 2 hydrogenation via the traditional CO 2 -to-methanol pathway has long suffered from poor selectivity toward target BTX molecules, as intermediate species frequently undergo excessive surface methylation to form heavier, less desirable C 9+ aromatics.
To address this challenge, a research team from the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with researchers from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanxi University, has designed a novel oxide/dual-zeolite tandem catalyst. By integrating a methanol-to-olefins (MTO)-active SAPO-34 zeolite into a ZnZrO x /ZSM-5 catalytic system via physical powder mixing, the team successfully modulated the concentration and evolution pathway of reaction intermediates. This hybrid system (designated as ZZO/2SP34/Z5) achieves remarkable BTX selectivity at a relatively low reaction temperature of 320 °C, offering a facile, non-petroleum route for sustainable chemical synthesis. The findings were published in ENGINEERING Energy .
Key Highlights and Findings
A Breakthrough in Low-Temperature Conversion
Direct hydrogenation of CO 2 to aromatics usually involves a trade-off: high overall aromatic yields often come at the expense of BTX selectivity due to secondary alkylation. While earlier efforts attempted to solve this by passivating ZSM-5 acid sites or introducing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) components, these methods often degraded total aromatic selectivity or required complex synthesis steps.
The tandem dual-zeolite strategy cleanly bypasses these issues. In this dynamic system, the ZnZrO x oxide converts CO 2 into oxygenated intermediates and methanol. SAPO-34 selectively redirects part of the methanol into C 2 = –C 4 = olefins, and ZSM-5 processes both the remaining oxygenates and light olefins into BTX via oligomerization, cyclization, and dehydrogenation. Achieving over 40% BTX selectivity among total aromatics at a mild temperature of 320 °C represents a performance benchmark rarely reported in existing literature.
This work provides crucial mechanistic insights into intermediate regulation during CO 2 hydrogenation and serves as a practical foundation for designing next-generation multifunctional tandem catalysts.
About the Research
Journal: ENGINEERING Energy
Read the full article for free: https://rdcu.be/DcaLompg14Na
Cite this article: Liu, J., Sun, S., Pan, M., Fang, D., Zhou, T., Bu, X., Yang, C., & Gao, P. (2026). Modulating reaction pathways for the highly selective production of light aromatics from CO 2 hydrogenation. ENGINEERING Energy , 20(5), 10750. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-026-1075-2
ENGINEERING Energy
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Modulating reaction pathways for the highly selective production of light aromatics from CO2 hydrogenation
31-Aug-2026