Pilot-scale production of gasoline and naphtha from carbon dioxide

A team of researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT; Daejeon, South Korea; www.krict.re.kr), along with industry partners, has developed catalyst and process technology that converts carbon dioxide into liquid hydrocarbons, such as gasoline and naphtha, without intermediate steps

In collaboration with GS Engineering & Construction (Seoul, South Korea; www.gsenc.com) and Hanwha TotalEnergies (www.hanwha.com), the team achieved pilot-scale production of 50 kg of liquid hydrocarbons per day.

Conventional CO₂ conversion technologies typically involve a two-step process in which CO₂ is first converted into carbon monoxide (CO) via the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction, followed by Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to converts CO and hydrogen into liquid hydrocarbons.

The KRICT-led team developed a direct-hydrogenation process in which CO₂ is converted to hydrocarbon compounds using a specialized zinc-modified synthetic zeolite catalyst. This direct hydrogenation technology allows CO₂ and hydrogen to react directly into liquid hydrocarbons without the high-temperature RWGS step. The catalyst is the protonic form of a ZSM-5 zeolite modified with zinc species. The researchers found that raising the Zn content in the zeolite framework decreased the ratio of Brønsted acid sites to Lewis acid sites, and the acidity modifications limited the formation of aromatics and heavy hydrocarbons in favor of C₅ –C₁₂ liquid products.

The technology operates under relatively mild conditions of approximately 270–330°C and 10–30 bars. By incorporating multi-stage reactions and recycling unreacted materials, the system currently achieves about 50% synthesis yield for liquid hydrocarbons, according to the researchers.

Improvements in catalyst manufacturing and operating conditions enhanced process stability while reducing energy consumption compared to conventional approaches. The simplified process structure also lowers production costs, the researchers say.

Through operation of the pilot plant, the research team plans to accumulate long-term operational data, which will be used for commercial-scale process design, economic feasibility analysis and greenhouse-gas reduction assessments for plants capable of producing over 100,000 tons annually.

The researchers envision that, when integrated with renewable energy, this technology could become a core enabling component of power-to-liquids (PtL) systems. A study of the catalyst behavior appears in the March 2026 issue of American Chemical Society Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.