Mechanistic study of catalytic methanol synthesis. Progress report

Technical Report · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:6124126

Kung, H H

The production of methanol from syngas currently employs a copper-zinc oxide catalyst. In order to maintain the high activity and selectivity on this catalyst, the feed mixture must contain CO, H/sub 2/ and CO/sub 2/. In the absence of CO/sub 2/ or other oxidizing agents such as H/sub 2/O and O/sub 2/, the catalysts deactivates rapidly. In the presence of a mixture of the three compounds, three reactions take place simultaneously: CO + 2H/sub 2/ = CH/sub 3/OH, CO/sub 2/ + 3H/sub 2/ = CH/sub 3/OH + H/sub 2/O, and CO + H/sub 2/O = CO/sub 2/ + H/sub 2/. The relative rates of the first two reactions are of particular interest because they determine the primary route for methanol production. This information is particularly important in future catalyst development. The goal of this research is to measure the rates of these three reactions under industrial synthesis conditions. A batch reactor has been constructed to measure the relaxation in the concentration of the five chemical species in the reaction mixture. Gas concentration is determined by bleeding the gas into a quadrupole mass spectrometer chamber via a leak valve. In order to follow accurately the relaxation of the small perturbation from equilibrium, small changes in the mass spectrometer signal must be monitored. This was accomplished by feeding the mass spectrometer signal into a base line subtraction/addition device which substracts off the large signal before the concentration jump. The small change after the jump can then be displayed on a sensitive recorder. Unfortunately an experimental difficulty developed when the sensitivity factor of the spectometer was found to vary by 20 to 30%. This problem is under investigation.

• Research Organization: Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-80PC30239
• OSTI ID: 6124126
• Report Number(s): DOE/PC/30239-T5; ON: DE85008739
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

090221* -- Alcohol Fuels-- Chemical Synthesis-- (1976-1989)
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
ALCOHOLS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON MONOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CATALYTIC EFFECTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COPPER COMPOUNDS
COPPER OXIDES
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
KINETICS
METHANATION
METHANOL
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REACTION KINETICS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SYNTHESIS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
ZINC COMPOUNDS
ZINC OXIDES