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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Synthesis of oxygenate products for high volume fuels applications. Quarterly status report No. 3 for the period April through June 1995

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:10130438

A rudimentary process variables study of the reaction of acetylene with methanol indicates high activity for the formation of ethanol, n- propanol, and i-butanol with a pure low temperature activated MgO catalyst. Initial results indicate that higher conversions and space- time yields may be obtainable by operation at higher temperatures and reactant feed rates, respectively. Also, ethanol formation was consistently observed to rise with decreasing reaction temperature between 454{degrees}C and 370{degrees}C. A 10% Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}/MgO catalyst exhibited high activity for methanol-dimethyl ether interconversion but was not very active for the condensation of these reactants to either the product alcohols or their methyl ethers. Neither catalyst exhibited significant activity for the condensation to dimethyl ether/water with acetylene to form such products. This lack of activity in the ether systems is attributed to insufficient hydrolysis of dimethyl ether to methanol, and it is expected that feeds containing additional water or methanol (which produces water via condensation) will exhibit higher activity. The aluminum- containing catalyst exhibited diminished condensation activity possibly as a result of deactivation of Mg sites by Al sites. The overall objective of this project is to develop catalyst and process technology for evaluation as potential routes for the production of high volume fuel oxygenates.

Research Organization:
Amoco Research Center, Naperville, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC22-94PC94064
OSTI ID:
10130438
Report Number(s):
DOE/PC/94064--T3; ON: TI98020210
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English