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Development of vanadium-phosphate catalysts for methanol production by selective oxidation of methane. Quarterly technical progress report 3, April--June 1993

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10103510· OSTI ID:10103510
This document is the third quarterly technical progress report under Contract No. AC22-92PC92110, ``Development of Vanadium-Phosphate Catalysts for Methanol Production by Selective Oxidation of Methane.`` During this quarter, we have continued to develop methods for catalyst activation by investigating activation in wet gas environments. This procedure leads to the formation of highly crystalline (VO){sub 2}P{sub 2}O{sub 7}, while activation under identical conditions, but with no moisture, leads to a poorly crystalline sample. Published data indicate that the highly crystalline form is representative of commercial butane oxidation catalysts. The main focus of our work during this quarter has been in the area of catalyst testing in the microreactor system. In order to confirm that our microreactor system was providing reliable data, we tested a V{sub 2}O{sub 5}/SiO{sub 2} catalyst at atmospheric pressure and temperatures from 500 to 600{degree}C using 90 to 95 percent CH{sub 4}/O{sub 2}. Several studies of methane oxidation using this catalyst have been published with reasonably good agreement between different research groups. We were not able to reproduce the literature data using steel reactors. However, when the steel reactor was lined with quartz and the postcatalyst reactor volume was minimized by packing with quartz chips, we obtained results which agree closely with those previously published. Using the same quartz reactor and test conditions, we also tested a highly crystalline (wet activated) VPO catalyst.
Research Organization:
AMAX Research and Development Center, Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC22-92PC92110
OSTI ID:
10103510
Report Number(s):
DOE/PC/92110--T3; ON: DE94002164; BR: AB0530150/AC0535000
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English