CO2 hydrogenation was carried out over a series of CuO-ZnO-ZrO2 catalysts prepared via a reverse co precipitation method. The influence of catalyst compositions on the physicochemical properties of the catalysts as well as their catalytic performance was investigated. The catalysts were characterized by means of N-2-sorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), H-2-temperature programmed reduction (H-2-TPR), H-2 and CO2 temperature-programmed desorption (H-2- and CO2-TPD). The binary CuO-ZrO2 (67:33) catalyst exhibits the highest methanol selectivity at all reaction temperature and its maximum yield of methanol (144.5 g(methanol) kg(cat)(-1) h(-1)) is achieved at 280 degrees C, owing to the strong basic sites and the largest CuO crystallite size. The addition of Zn to the binary CuO-ZrO2 catalyst causes a higher Cu dispersion and an increased number of active sites for CO2 and H-2 adsorption. However, the basic strength of the ternary CuO-ZnO-Zr02 catalysts is lower than the binary CuO-ZrO2 catalyst which provides the maximum yield of methanol at lower reaction tempertures (240 and 250 degrees C), depending on the catalyst compositions. The optimum catalyst composition of Cu-Zn-Zr (38.2:28.6:33.2) gives a superior methanol productivity of 219.7 g(methanol) kg(cat)(-1) h(-1) at 240 degrees C. The results demonstrate the possibility of controlling catalytic CO2 hydrogenation via tuning the catalyst composition. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.