Novel approaches to the production of higher alcohols from synthesis gas. Quarterly technical progress report No. 16, July 1, 1994-- September 30, 1994

Accomplishments for Task 2, liquid-phase, higher alcohol process with recycle of lower alcohols, are as follows: (1) a new reactor overhead system design has significantly improved retention of slurry oil during reactor operation at high temperature, ca. 375{degrees}C; (2) a series of ``blank`` (without catalyst) runs were made at 375{degrees}C to evaluate thermal stability of three potential slurry liquids, Drakeol{reg_sign}, Ethylflo{reg_sign} 180 and perhydrofluorene; and (3) the rate of methanol formation with the Cu/ZnO BASF S3-86 ``low temperature`` methanol synthesis catalyst was a strong function of stirrer speed at a ``standard`` set of operating conditions. This result suggest that the reaction rate is influenced or controlled by gas/liquid mass transfer, and may explain the previously-observed discrepancy between results from this laboratory and those from Air Products