Kg. Chanchlani et al., METHANOL SYNTHESIS UNDER PERIODIC OPERATION - AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION, Canadian journal of chemical engineering, 72(4), 1994, pp. 657-671
Experiments have been conducted on Cu/ZnO and Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalysts a
t 225 degrees C and 2.86 MPa in an isothermal, differential packed bed
reactor to identify promising periodic operations strategies and find
cycling variables which give the largest improvement in the synthesis
rate relative to steady state. Modulating the H-2 and CO2 concentrati
ons appears to be the best strategy. However, the increased rate under
composition modulation was insensitive to cycle period, amplitude and
split in the cycle period range from 2 to 30 min. Higher methanol yie
ld resulted from the suppression of the reverse water gas shift reacti
on. Higher rates under cycling arise from structural or compositional
changes to the catalyst surface.