Partial oxidation of methanol over a Pt/Al2O3 catalyst enhanced by sprays

Reaction characteristics of POM (partial oxidation of methanol) over a Pt/Al2O3 catalyst are investigated in this study. Particular attention is paid to the POM performance enhanced by sprays. The influences of the 02-to-methanol molar ratio (the O-2/C ratio), the catalyst bed with/without preheating, and the preheating temperature on POM are also examined. Compared to liquid methanol dropped onto the catalyst bed, atomized methanol can be uniformly dispersed on the catalyst bed when sprays are applied. Therefore, the POM performance is enhanced drastically by sprays. With increasing the O-2/C ratio, POM progressively evolves into methanol combustion, and methane formation inherently changes from kinetically dominating mechanism to thermodynamically governing one. When sprays are practiced, the performance of POM under preheating is close to that under cold start, and an increase in preheating temperature intensifies the performance to a small extent. With the operation of sprays, the relative methanol conversion can be improved over 30%. Therefore, using sprays and cold start for POM over the Pt/Al2O3 catalyst is a feasible operation to produce syngas. From the perspectives of syngas production and methanol conversion, the optimum O-2/C ratio for POM operation with sprays and cold start is located at 0.7. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.