Open AccessDevelopment of a catalyst for conversion of syngas-derived materials to isobutylene. Quarterly report number 19, October 1--December 31, 1995
Author(s) -
B.C. Spehlmann
Publication year - 1996
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/257359
Subject(s) - isobutanol , syngas , catalysis , methanol , chemistry , selectivity , isobutylene , ethanol , oxygenate , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , engineering , polymer , copolymer
The goals of this project are to develop a catalyst and process for the conversion of syngas to isobutanol. After identification and optimization of key catalyst and process characteristics, the commercial potential of the process is to be evaluated by an economic analysis. From independent process variable studies to investigate the conversion of a methanol/ethanol feed to isobutanol, the best performance to date has been achieved with the 2% Pt on Zn/Mn/Zr oxide catalyst. Using Hyprotech Hysim v2.5 process simulation software, and considering both gas and liquid recycle loops in the process flow diagram, the overall carbon conversion is 98% with 22% selectivity to isobutanol. The expected production of isobutanol is 92 MT/day from 500 MT/day of methanol and 172 MT/day of ethanol feed. An additional 13 MT/day of isobutryaldehyde intermediate is recovered in the liquid product and vent streams. Because of the low selectivity (22%) of the methanol conversion catalyst to isobutanol, the process is uneconomical, even if the isobutanol is valued as a solvent ($903/MT) and not as isobutylene for MTBE production ($352/MT)