{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T00:22:04Z","timestamp":1768868524376,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,17]],"date-time":"2026-01-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1768608000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"UM International Collaboration","award":["IMG004-2022"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["IMG004-2022"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Membranes"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) to methanol in a traditional reactor (TR) with catalytic packed bed faces the challenge of lower reactant conversion due to thermodynamic limitations. On the contrary, membrane reactors selectively remove reaction products, enhancing the conversion, but it is still limited, and existing designs face challenges of structural integrity and scale-up complications. Therefore, for the first time, a ceramic membrane microchannel reactor (CMMR) system was developed with 500 \u00b5m deep microchannels, incorporated with catalytic membrane for CO2 conversion to methanol. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations confirmed the uniform flow distribution among the microchannels. A catalytic LTA zeolite membrane was synthesized with thin layer (~45 \u00b5m) of Cu-ZnO-Al2O3 catalyst coating and tested at a temperature of 220 \u00b0C and 3.0 MPa pressure. The results showed a significantly higher CO2 conversion of 82%, which is approximately 10 times higher than TR and 3 times higher than equilibrium conversion while 1.5 times higher than conventional tubular membrane reactor. Additionally, methanol selectivity and yield were achieved as 51.6% and 42.3%, respectively. The research outputs showed potential of replacing the current industrial process of methanol synthesis, addressing the Sustainable Development Goals of SDG-7, 9, and 13 for clean energy, industry innovation, and climate action, respectively.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/membranes16010045","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,19]],"date-time":"2026-01-19T11:35:27Z","timestamp":1768822527000},"page":"45","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Development of High-Performance Catalytic Ceramic Membrane Microchannel Reactor for Carbon Dioxide Conversion to Methanol"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Aubaid","family":"Ullah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9480-2498","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nur Awanis","family":"Hashim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"},{"name":"Sustainable Process Engineering Centre (SPEC), Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6284-8400","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohamad Fairus","family":"Rabuni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"},{"name":"Sustainable Process Engineering Centre (SPEC), Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0347-2495","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohd Usman Mohd","family":"Junaidi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"},{"name":"Sustainable Process Engineering Centre (SPEC), Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4810-8697","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ammar","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0007-3085-6036","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mustapha Grema","family":"Mohammed","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1981-2469","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammed Sahal","family":"Siddique","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"167","DOI":"10.1016\/j.oneear.2023.01.006","article-title":"Developing countries\u2019 responsibilities for CO2 emissions in value chains are larger and growing faster than those of developed countries","volume":"6","author":"Meng","year":"2023","journal-title":"One Earth"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Bhattacharya, A., Kharas, H., and McArthur, J.W. 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