Activation studies of the Cs-doped Cu/ZnO catalyst for the higher alcohol synthesis

In the present study the effect of different pre-treatment procedures on the modified methanol synthesis catalyst, Cs-doped Cu/ZnO catalyst, was studied in a fixed bed micro-reactor. The catalyst was provided by Institute of Chemical Engineering PAN, Gliwice, Poland. Prior to synthesis in the microreactor the process of the catalyst reduction was investigated in the thermobalance TGA/SDTA851 LF, Mettler-Toledo, coupled with the mass spectrometer (QMS422, Balzers). The optimum reduction temperature for different reducing gases (hydrogen or carbon monoxide or syn-gas) was specified in dynamic TGA studies. The oxygenate products obtained over the catalyst consists of essentially linear primary C1 to C6 alcohols. The formation of both alcohols and straight-chain hydrocarbons (n-paraffins) tends to follow regular trends with carbon number (Schutz-Flory distribution). The values of chain growth probabilities depend on activation procedure. The catalyst activated with CO produced more higher alcohols than that reduced with hydrogen.