Affiliation:
1. Centre for Energy (M473) The University of Western Australia Crawley Western Australia Australia
2. Research Centre for Chemistry, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Kawasan Sains dan Teknologi B.J. Habibie Serpong Tangerang Selatan Banten Indonesia
3. Shanxi Institute of Energy Taiyuan Shanxi China
Abstract
AbstractThe performance of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 (CZA) catalysts promoted by addition of CeO2, MnO2 or ZrO2 in direct methanol production from unconventional syngas was experimentally investigated. The unconventional syngas used in this study contain 25% H2, 25% CO, 20% CH4, 20% CO2 and 10% N2, representing biomass‐derived syngas cultivated from an industrial wood chips pyrolysis plant. The catalysts were synthesised using co‐precipitation technique and tested for methanol synthesis in a fixed‐bed reactor. The activity test of the catalysts showed that the addition of CeO2 or ZrO2 to the CZA catalyst improved the methanol yield, albeit with lower selectivity, whereas adding MnO2 enhanced methanol selectivity but decreased the methanol yield. ZrO2‐promoted catalyst showed the best‐improved activity and stability. The calcined and spent catalysts were characterised using X‐ray diffraction (XRD), N2 physisorption, N2O chemisorption, hydrogen temperature‐programmed reduction (H2‐TPR) and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The characterisation results indicate that the catalytic activity is dependent on Cu dispersion, Cu‐active surface area, the catalyst reducibility, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area and the Cu0/Cu+ ratio. In contrast, catalyst stability was related to the proportion of Cu+ among all surface Cu species.
Funder
Australian Research Council
Australian Renewable Energy Agency