An investigation of the reduction of carbon monoxide by heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis

Thesis/Dissertation · Sun Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6712930

Edens, M W

The investigation was carried out in connection with the use of carbon monoxide as a precursor of liquid fuel. Addition of Lewis acids, such as boron trifluoride and sulfur trioxide, to an operating Fischer-Tropsch system increased the hydrocarbon yields 4-16 times. A temperature increase, observed upon addition of these compounds, was insufficient to account for the increased yield. The Lewis acids probably coordinate to the oxygen atom of a metal-coordinated carbon monoxide and aid the carbon-oxygen bond cleavage, leading to the growth of hydrocarbon chains. When the synthesis of methanol was carried out by depositing (C/sub 2/H/sub 4/)/sub 4/N(+1)HFe(CO)/sub 4/(-1) on silica gel and treating with water and 100 psi carbon monoxide at 105/sup 0/-120/sup 0/C in a flow reactor, iron escaped as the pentacarbonyl. Replacement of a carbonyl ligand by a substituted phosphite ligand in an attempt to prevent iron loss failed to produce an active homogeneous methanol catalyst. Compounds of the type K(+1)HM/sub 2/(CO)/sub 10/(-1), where M is Cr, Mo, or W, produced formaldehyde from carbon monoxide and water in a heterogeneous catalytic system with a celite support.

• OSTI ID: 6712930
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

090221* -- Alcohol Fuels-- Chemical Synthesis-- (1976-1989)
10 SYNTHETIC FUELS
ALCOHOLS
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON MONOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CATALYSIS
CATALYSTS
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
FISCHER-TROPSCH SYNTHESIS
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
LEWIS ACIDS
METHANOL
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REDUCTION
SYNTHESIS
YIELDS