An active and stable methanol synthesis catalyst for the three-phase process

Methanol is one of the most important basic feedstock for the organic chemical industry and also is a potential fuel. A new methanol synthesis catalyst, LP 201, which has much higher activity than many commercial catalysts and has good stability, was developed. The catalyst LP 201 wit mole ratios of the components Cu/Zn/Al/X = 50:40:7:3, where X is an additive, was prepared by a modified precipitation procedure. The catalyst was evaluated together with some reference catalysts in a fixed-bed reactor (two-phase process) under conditions of 230°C, 3 MPa, and 7600 mL/(g·hr) space velocity, using H₂/CO/CO₂/N₂ = 68:24:5:3 mole ratios. The activity of LP 201 was higher than that of the commercial catalysts in the two-phase process and nearly three times as high as that of the catalyst C302 in the three-phase process. In the two-phase process, the activity of LP 201 decreased by only 21% after overheating as compared to that of C302, which dropped by 40.5%.