A. Beretta et al., DEVELOPMENT OF A PROCESS FOR HIGHER ALCOHOL PRODUCTION VIA SYNTHESIS GAS, Industrial & engineering chemistry research, 37(10), 1998, pp. 3896-3908
This paper reports work at the laboratory and pilot scale concerning t
he design of a process for the production of valuable higher oxygenate
s from synthesis gas. The performance of a Snamprogetti high-temperatu
re catalyst for the synthesis of methanol and higher alcohols was exte
nsively studied, and a lumped kinetic model was developed; this accoun
ts for the product distribution over the range of interest of temperat
ure, pressure, and space velocity and includes the effect of synthesis
gas composition. The model was applied to the preliminary simulation
of a multistage adiabatic reactor. A single-stage adiabatic pilot reac
tor was then realized and operated. It was verified that higher alcoho
l synthesis can be carried out without the risk of uncontrollable heat
buildup by properly tuning the amount of methanol in the feed stream.