Chinese Journal of Catalysis ›› 2012, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (6): 1007-1013.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1088.2012.11215

• Research papers • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Performance of Promoted Rh-Fe/Al2O3 Catalysts for CO Hydrogenation to Ethanol

CHEN Weimiao1, DING Yunjie1,2,*, SONG Xiangeng1,3, ZHU Hejun1, YAN Li1, WANG Tao1   

  1. 1Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China; 2State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, Liaoning, China; 3Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049
  • Received:2011-12-22 Revised:2012-01-19 Online:2012-05-30 Published:2012-05-30

Abstract: The effects of Rh and Fe loading, and promoters on CO hydrogenation performance over Rh-Fe/Al2O3 catalysts were investigated, as well as the stability of the catalysts. The results showed that with the increasing of Fe loading, methanol selectivity produced from syngas increased continuously accompanying by the decrease in methane selectivity, but the ethanol selectivity had a maximum value. The addition of alkaline or alkaline earth metals promoted methanol coupling or CO dissociation and insertion, or suppressed hydrogenation ability more or less, as a result, ethanol selectivity enhanced, and methanol selectivity decreased, but hydrocarbon selectivity remained almost unchanged. With CO hydrogenation reaction proceeding, hydrocarbon selectivity decreased, but methanol selectivity increased gradually, unfortunately, ethanol selectivity decreased, and the additions of promoters had little effect on it, probably due to the reduction of Fe species by syngas or decreasing of Rh-Fe interface areas during reaction.

Key words: rhodium, iron, alumina, supported catalyst, carbon monoxide, hydrogenation, ethanol