(719d) Co-Production of Methanol and Dimethyl Ether Using a Modified Copper-Based Catalyst System

A modified dual-catalytic system of Cu/ZnCO₃/Al₂O₃ and γ- Al₂O₃ was experimentally investigated for the co-production of methanol and dimethylether (DME) in a three-phase slurry reactor. The experiments were carried out in the presence of white mineral oil in a stirred autoclave reactor. The preliminary experimental results have revealed that (1) the modified catalyst exhibits a good potential to maintain the initial catalytic activity for a prolonged time in a typical reaction environment; (2) the catalyst exhibits high CO₂ tolerance and reactivity for the feed syngas; and (3) the catalyst possesses an enhanced attrition resistance. This study has also shown that (1) the conversion of commercial Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃ to Cu/ZnCO₃/Al₂O₃ in a supercritical carbon dioxide medium provides an efficient method for catalyst modification as well as structural reformulation and (2) the new carbonate modified catalyst system better maintains the initial crystallite size of Cu by impeding or alleviating the process of hydrothermal crystallite growth during the catalytic reaction in the water and methanol rich environment of the methanol and DME synthesis.