The findings were published in Applied Catalysis B: Environmental and Energy, with Yeji Choi and colleagues listing the DOI 10.1016/j.apcatb.2025.125475.

The catalyst relies on a layered double hydroxide structure incorporating iron and magnesium to prevent copper particle agglomeration, enhancing thermal stability at lower temperatures where copper alone would underperform.

By filling gaps between copper particles, the LDH-structured catalyst maintains activity and stability, enabling sustained low-temperature performance.

The work was published in May 2025, supported by KIER’s R&D on producing sustainable aviation fuel from CO2 and hydrogen.

At 400°C, the catalyst achieves a CO yield of 33.4% and a formation rate of 223.7 μmol·gcat⁻¹·s⁻¹ with stability over 100 hours, outperforming standard copper catalysts by about 1.5–1.7x in yield and rate and surpassing platinum catalysts by 2.2x in rate and 1.8x in yield.

Dr. Koo highlighted the practical potential of low-temperature CO2 hydrogenation with inexpensive metals and the plan to push toward real industrial applications and carbon neutrality goals.

Compared with noble metals like platinum, the catalyst shows, under similar conditions, markedly higher formation rates and yields, making it a leading option for low-temperature CO2 hydrogenation to CO and subsequent synthetic fuels.

The research points to potential industrial applications for low-temperature CO2 hydrogenation to produce feedstocks for sustainable fuels, contributing to carbon neutrality and greener fuel production technologies.

A research team at the Korea Institute of Energy Research, led by Dr. Kee Young Koo, has developed a copper–magnesium–iron mixed-oxide catalyst that significantly boosts the low-temperature reverse water–gas shift reaction, converting CO2 to CO more efficiently for sustainable fuel production.

The new catalyst enables the RWGS reaction at a notably lower temperature of around 400°C, addressing the limitations of conventional copper and nickel catalysts.

The CO produced via RWGS can be combined with hydrogen to form syngas, a building block for synthetic fuels such as e-fuels and methanol, enabling cost-effective and scalable sustainable fuel production.

unlike traditional copper catalysts, the new catalyst directly converts CO2 to CO on the surface, reducing formate byproducts and maintaining high activity at 400°C.