Study on new method and mechanism of low-temperature methanol synthesis

The methanol could be synthesized from the CO/CO₂/H₂ on Cu/ZnO catalysts using alcohol solvent at 443 K and 3.0 Mpa. The activity of the catalyst with ZnO as carrier (Cu/ZnO) was the highest in all catalysts with Y₂O₃, La₂O₃, Al₂O₃, or MgO as carrier separately, and the 2-butanol as solvent exhibited the highest activity in this reaction. The studying results of the reaction mechanism show that at first adsorbed formate species were formed by adsorbing the CO/CO₂/H₂ on Cu/ZnO catalyst, and then the 2-butyl formate was formed by the reaction of adsorbed formate species with 2-butanol, at last the 2-butyl formate is reduced by hydrogen atoms on Cu to form methanol. The 2-butanol used in this reaction not only significantly decreased the reaction temperature due to its promotional action, but also was not consumed due to its regeneration by hydrogenation of the 2-butyl formate, acting like a catalytic solvent.