Abstract: Methanol was synthesized with syngas (CO/CO2/H2) as starting material and Cu-Zn based catalysts at low temperature/pressure (443 K/3.0 MPa), where the 2-butanol was used as solvent. In such a reaction process the alcohol solvent was not consumed but played a catalytic role. The effects of the carriers and rare-earth additives on the activity of catalyst were investigated, and the results showed that the Cu/ZnO catalyst exhibits the highest activity in all catalysts prepared using ZnO, MgO, Al2O3, La2O3, Y2O3 as carriers in low-temperature synthesis reaction process of methanol. The activity of the Cu-Zn based catalysts increases if using rare-earth elements as additives, and the highest activity belongs to the Cu/ZnO/Y2O3 catalyst in which the Y content is 7.5 wt% or the Cu/ZnO/La2O3 catalyst in which the La content is 10 wt%, i.e., the total carbon conversion rate is 10 % or 17.5% higher than using Cu/ZnO only, respectively. The methanol output increases by 17.5% if using Cu/ZnO/Y2O3 or Cu/ZnO/La2O3 catalyst in comparison with using Cu/ZnO catalyst.