Isobutanol synthesis from syngas
- Institut fuer Technische Chemie und Petrolchemie, Aachen (Germany)
The hydrogenation of CO to oxygenates is a field of growing interest due to their properties as gasoline blends and the necessity to search for alternatives for future automotive fuels. While methanol synthesis from syngas is a well established process, the work on higher alcohol synthesis has been less successful. The demand for MTBE (Methyl-tert-butylether) is shifting the interest from higher linear alcohols towards the branched members, mainly isobutanol. The application of slurry reactors for exothermic reactions has gained considerable interest in the industrial and academic world. For synthesis gas conversions the LPMeOH process by Air Products is a well known example. This prompted us to apply this technology to isobutanol synthesis which runs under more extreme reaction conditions. Because of much easier and faster handling and the necessity to compare results from slurry reactions with the fixed bed reactions cited in literature fixed bed reactor systems are preferred for catalyst development and optimization. The main differences e.g. temperature gradients, backmixing and particle sizes will obviously have major influence on a reaction which mechanistically consists of a network from parallel and consecutive steps. Due to this objective, a fixed bed reactor study has been performed running a typical isobutanol catalyst with different particle sizes and linear velocities. The catalyst developed by us consists of a potassium promoted ZrO{sub 2}/ZnO/MnO possessing high activity for isobutanol and methanol. These tests provide data to study the behaviour of residence time and temperature on reaction products. Furthermore mass transfer limitations which affect activity and selectivity can be determined.
- OSTI ID:
- 420523
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960807-; ISSN 0569-3772; TRN: 97:000002-0024
- Journal Information:
- Preprints of Papers, American Chemical Society, Division of Fuel Chemistry, Vol. 41, Issue 3; Conference: 212. national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS), Orlando, FL (United States), 25-30 Aug 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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