Gas-Phase Methanol Carbonylation for Dimethyl Ether and Acetic Acid Co-Production

Abstract

Gas-phase methanol carbonylation over HMOR catalyst was investigated for the synthesis of dimethyl ether (DME) and acetic acid (HOAc). The results revealed that the selectivity of DME reached 98% and the methanol conversion was 45% under the reaction temperature of 493K. While, the selectivity of HOAc was 30% and the methanol conversion reached 80% when reaction temperature was increased to 573K. TEM, SEM, XRD, N2 physisorbtion, XPS and TG-DTG measurements were performed to characterize the texture and structure of the catalyst. Serious coking on the catalyst surface significantly limited the utilization of unmodified HMOR catalyst in the reaction.

Direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from CO2 hydrogenation over a highly active, selective and stable catalyst containing Cu–ZnO–Al2O3/Al–Zr(1 : 1)-SBA-15

“…It was critically reviewed by us recently. 1,2 DME is a clean fuel as it gets depleted very quickly in the atmosphere, 3 and it is an intermediate for a series of industrially essential chemicals such as acetic acid, 4,5 formaldehyde, 6 methyl acetate, 7 ethanol, 8 aromatics, 9,10 gasoline, 11 light olefins, [12][13][14] higher ethers, oxygenates, etc. 15,16 The auto-ignition property of DME makes it a high-efficiency compression ignition fuel and DME is far from being carcinogenic, toxic, teratogenic, or mutagenic.…”

“…In this work, we have investigated DME synthesis from the hydrogenation of CO 2 in a single step with the combination of a methanol synthesis catalyst (MSC) and a methanol dehydration catalyst (MDC) in a continuous fixed bed reactor. DME synthesis from CO 2 involves a series of reversible reactions (eqn (1)-( 3)), whereas eqn (5) is the overall reaction. [20][21][22]…”