The economical production of alcohol fuels from coal-derived synthesis gas. Eleventh quarterly technical progress report, April 1, 1994--June 30, 1994

Technical Report · Fri Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1994

OSTI ID:10193556

The West Virginia University (WVU) plug-flow microreactor system is now functioning. Testing runs on this system with two methanol catalysts have commenced. The results are consistent with those published by two industrial laboratories, at least under limited conditions. Modifications will be made to test the catalysts under a broader range of conditions. Screening of the catalysts prepared at WVU is expected to commence shortly with this reactor system. The second reactor system at WVU is awaiting a replacement interface board for temperature control. Additional hardware has been ordered for this system so that it can be used either to screen additional catalysts or to obtain kinetic data on selected catalyst samples. At Union Carbide, the reactor units will be operated under conditions such that they will not need to be modified to prevent secondary reactions. However, one of the reactors will be coated. Tests will be run to ensure that no extraneous effects are observed. Catalyst synthesis at WVU has focused on chevrel-phase and molybdenum azide compounds. These and previously synthesized materials have been characterized in terms of their surface area as well as by x-ray diffraction and x-ray fluorescence. A series of experiments has been completed investigating the influence of temperature and flow rate on the physical properties of molybdenum sulfides, iron nitrides and iron carbides. The series of transition metal catalysts to be, run in the reactor units at Union Carbide has been finalized. Modelling studies are continuing satisfactorily. The. more-complicated reaction scheme which can account for individual alcohols and ketones in a plug-flow reactor is found to mimic experimental data for a fixed bed, as reported in the literature. A packed-bed membrane reactor can be shown to increase the yields of individual alcohols and ketones, relative to the plug-flow reactor.

• Research Organization: West Virginia Univ. Research Corp., Morgantown, WV (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC22-91PC91034
• OSTI ID: 10193556
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/91034--T9; ON: DE95002620; BR: AA2520000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
010408
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
100200
ALCOHOL FUELS
AZIDES
C1 PROCESSES
CATALYSTS
CHEMICAL PREPARATION
CHEMICAL REACTORS
CONVERSION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
IRON CARBIDES
IRON NITRIDES
MOLYBDENUM COMPOUNDS
MOLYBDENUM SULFIDES
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PRODUCTION
PROGRESS REPORT
SYNTHESIS GAS