Determination of optimum conditions and the kinetics of methanol oxidation

In this study, the catalytic oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde was investigated in a laboratory-scale fixedbed catalytic reactor, under a large number of different conditions. Iron-molybdate catalysts supported by silica or alumina with a molybdenium/iron (Mo/Fe) ratio of 1.5, 3 and 5 were studied for the gas phase reaction. In order to obtain the optimum conditions, six different temperatures in the range of 250-375°C and three different space times of 50.63, 33.75 and 20.25 g/(mol/h) were investigated. After determining the optimum conditions for this reaction, experiments aimed at understanding the reaction kinetics, were carried out. These experiments were performed on the catalyst favoring the formation of formaldehyde, which has a (Mo/Fe) ratio of 5 on a silica support. Seven reaction models derived by the mechanisms cited in the literature were tested to elucidate the kinetics of the reaction and the surface reaction controlling model was found to be the most suitable reaction mechanism. © 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim