The Effect of Zirconia on the Performance of Cu-Cr Catalyst for Low Temperature Methanol Synthesis Slurry Phase

Cu-Cr and Cu-Cr-Zr catalysts for the low temperature methanol synthesis slurry phase, with the surface area of 77.9 and 113.2 m2/g respectively, were prepared by the coprecipitation approach. The activity and selectivity of these catalysts were evaluated in a stainless steel autoclave at 5.5 MPa and at different temperatures of 383 and 423 K separately. It was found that the activity of Cu-Cr-Zr catalyst was obviously higher than that of Cu-Cr catalyst, whereas the methanol selectivity of Cu-Cr-Zr catalyst was a little lower. The concentration of sodium compounds in the solution after reaction was also measured. The results showed that the concentration of sodium formate after reaction is much lower than that before reaction, which is quite different from the observations from the Cu-Cr catalyst previously. This implies that the conversion of sodium methoxide to sodium formate has been completely suppressed in the presence of zirconia in Cu-Cr-Zr catalyst. This finding is more beneficial to improve the performance of Cu-Cr catalyst and to increase the life of catalyst system as well.