Study on new method and mechanism of low-temperature methanol synthesis

• Published in: 2011 International Conference on Materials for Renewable Energy & Environment Vol. 2; pp. 1404 - 1407
• Main Authors: Wenze Li, Baoyan Zhang, Ruiqin Yang, Chengxue Lu, Ling Zeng, Liujiu Xiao, Ying Xie, Peng Lu, Chuang Xing, Lei Shi, Tsubaki, Noritatsu
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-05-2011
• Subjects: 2-Butanol; CO/CO 2 /H 2; Copper; Heating; In-situ DRIFTS; Methanol; Solvents; Zinc oxide
• ISBN: 9781612847498; 1612847498
• DOI: 10.1109/ICMREE.2011.5930597

The methanol could be synthesized from the CO/CO 2 /H 2 on Cu/ZnO catalysts using alcohol solvent at 443 K and 3.0 Mpa. The activity of the catalyst with ZnO as carrier (Cu/ZnO) was the highest in all catalysts with Y 2 O 3 , La 2 O 3 , Al 2 O 3 , or MgO as carrier separately, and the 2-butanol as solvent exhibited the highest activity in this reaction. The studying results of the reaction mechanism show that at first adsorbed formate species were formed by adsorbing the CO/CO 2 /H 2 on Cu/ZnO catalyst, and then the 2-butyl formate was formed by the reaction of adsorbed formate species with 2-butanol, at last the 2-butyl formate is reduced by hydrogen atoms on Cu to form methanol. The 2-butanol used in this reaction not only significantly decreased the reaction temperature due to its promotional action, but also was not consumed due to its regeneration by hydrogenation of the 2-butyl formate, acting like a catalytic solvent.