Kinetics and Deactivation in the Methanol Synthesis Reaction

Abstract

This study is highlighting the synthesis of methanol by using Cu-based ( ) catalyst and synthesis gas, which consists a mixture of CO, CO2, H2, N2 and CH4. The catalyst was prepared as per the procedure described by the ICI and characterised by performing X-ray diffraction and Nitrogen adsorption/desorption. Experiments were carried out for the methanol synthesis at 80 bar pressure as well as at 255ºC temperatures and found very good reproducibility. The deactivation of the prepared catalyst was studied by using laboratory based fixed bed reactor. The experimental result showed that the prepared catalyst was highly stable and there was no deactivation of the catalyst up to 240 hours of the reaction period of time. The effect of the composition of feed gas (i.e., synthesis gas) on the activation energy of methanol synthesis was measured at specific conditions of pressure and contact time. However, the maximum was observed whenever the ratio of was 2. The higher production of methanol was 2.084 g/h, which was observed at specific pressure, temperature and contact time of feed in the experiment.