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For Better Industrial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Methanol Synthesis Catalyst: A Compositional Study

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Abstract

A series of industrial related Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 methanol catalysts with different compositions were prepared by parallel coprecipitation method at neutral condition. The structural properties were characterized through BET, XRD, TEM, TPD and TPR, and the catalytic performances were evaluated on a 4-tube stainless steel continuous flow fixed-bed microreactor. The influence of composition on performances was investigated. The results show that Al2O3 increases the long-term stability of catalysts due to stabilizing effect, meanwhile, Al also promotes the formation of zincian malachite phase as the precursor during coprecipitation and aging. Furthermore, Al2O3 surface acidity also affects the byproducts selectivity. Cu/Zn ratio influences the activity of catalysts which could be traced back to precursor phases. ZnO also affects the long-term stability probably derived from its spacing effect. Taking activity, long-term stability and product purity all into consideration, an optimized composition was found to be with 2.8 ≤ n(Cu)/n(Zn) ≤ 3.0 and 10 ≤ n(Al) ≤ 12, over which the performances are better than that of commercial C307 catalyst in our experiments.

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Acknowledgements

This work is sponsored by NUPTSF, Grant No. NY215016 and NY215079. The authors also thank Lin Xia (SARI) and Yanzhang Yang (SARI) for the help on characterization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210023, People’s Republic of China

    Kang Xiao & Qiong Wang

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201210, People’s Republic of China

    Xingzhen Qi & Liangshu Zhong

Authors
  1. Kang Xiao
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  2. Qiong Wang
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  3. Xingzhen Qi
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  4. Liangshu Zhong
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Correspondence to Qiong Wang.

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Xiao, K., Wang, Q., Qi, X. et al. For Better Industrial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 Methanol Synthesis Catalyst: A Compositional Study. Catal Lett 147, 1581–1591 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-017-2022-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-017-2022-8

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