Pretreatment of Ru/TiO₂ Catalysts Influences Activity and Selectivity in CO₂ Hydrogenation

Abstract The need for a pretreatment strategy for CO and CO 2 hydrogenation is already known for Fe‐ and Co‐based Fischer‐Tropsch catalysts but is unexplored for Ru‐based catalysts. The aim of this work was to establish a starting point from which to systematically develop pretreatment strategies to maximize the activity, selectivity, and stability of the catalyst. The results show that all pretreatment strategies tested here are equal or better than no pretreatment for the conversion of CO 2 . The pretreatment with CO/H 2 synthesis gas can double the activity, but the advantage is diminished over 80 h of experiment. In contrast, the use of dilute O 2 significantly increases the selectivity towards methane while pure CO 2 significantly increases the selectivity to higher hydrocarbons.