Development of a catalyst for conversion of syngas-derived materials to isobutylene. Quarterly report No. 14, July 1, 1994--September 30, 1994

The goals of this project are to develop a catalyst and process for the conversion of syngas to isobutanol. The research will identify and optimize key catalyst and process characteristics. In addition, the commercial potential of the new process will be evaluated by an economic analysis. Previous work had identified Pt and Pd on Zn/Mn/Zr oxide and Pd on Zn/Mn/Cr oxide as promising catalysts for the conversion of a 10/1 methanol/ethanol blend to higher oxygenates. The reproducibility of these catalyst preparations has been found to be generally good, although some variations in performance have been observed between the Pd containing samples. Further characterization of the catalysts showing performance differences is in progress to determine whether compositional variations can account for the discrepancies. Several new 2% Pt on metal oxide catalysts have been prepared and tested. None of these materials performed better than the original 2% Pt on Zn/Mn/Zr (34/34/32 molar) oxide catalyst. However, a lower Zr content support (45/45/10 Zn/Mn/Zr oxide) gave similar results. Evaluation of the 2% Pd on Zn/Mn/Cr oxide at high space velocities has indicated that this material may be substantially less active for the C{sub 1}{minus}C{sub 1}, condensation step necessary for methanol only conversion to higher alcohols. In view of this finding, subsequent research will focus on the development of the Zn/Mn/Zr oxide support. A variety of alternative catalyst formulations have also been prepared and tested, but have failed to match the performance of noble metal on mixed metal oxide catalysts. These materials have include Cu and Mo on TiO{sub 2}, Mg/Al MOSS and polyvinylpyridine and commercial and laboratory prepared Mn oxide samples