Preparation of the Catalyst for Methanol Synthesis from Syngas

The influence of preparation conditions of Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts by co-precipitation method on its performance in methanol synthesis from syngas was studied. By changing the preparation parameters at two levels, the optimized preparation conditions was determined and confirmed by reactor test of the catalyst prepared accordingly. The influence of the promoters Mn, Mg, Zr, Cr, Ba, Ce and W on catalyst activity and stability was also studied. Cerium exhibited the highest influence on catalyst stability. To investigate the effect of preparation procedure, catalyst samples were prepared by sequential precipitation method under similar conditions. It was found that catalyst prepared by sequential precipitation show higher catalytic activity. Optimized catalyst prepared by both method showed better performance compared to available commercial catalysts. Consequently, the developed formulations are capable of scale-up and commercial production processes.