University of Pittsburgh. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering.
Doi
Abstract
The goal of this research is to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms of formation of alcohols and other oxygenates from syngas over supported catalysts. Probe molecules are added in situ during the reaction to help delineate reaction pathways and identify reaction intermediate species. The key of our study is to investigate how the species generated by these probe molecules interact with surface species present during oxygenate formation. The catalysts chosen for tills investigation is Co/Cu/ZnO/Al[sub 2]O[sub 3]. Detailed motivations for studying this system as well as using CH[sub 3]NO[sub 2] as the probe molecule were given in a previous report. (A) Pretreatment of a Co(O%)/Cu/ZnO/Al[sub 2]O[sub 3] to be used as a base catalyst was carried out. (B) XRD experiments were carried out with the calcined and reduced samples of the O%-Co, 5%-Co and 10%-Co catalysts. (C) Temperature programmed reduction was performed with the O%-Co, 5%-Co and 10%-Co catalysts. (D) CO hydrogenation under the same conditions used for the 5%-Co and 10%-Co catalysts was conducted over the Co(O%)/Cu/ZnO/Al[sub 2]O[sub 3] catalyst. (E) CH[sub 3]NO[sub 2] addition to the steady state reaction of CO hydrogenation was conducted over both the O%-Co and the 10%-Co catalysts
