A one-step synthesis method of durene directly from syngas using integrated catalyst of Cu/ZnO/Al<ce:inf loc="post">2</ce:inf>O<ce:inf loc="post">3</ce:inf> and Co-Nb/HZSM-5

In recent years, the demand for durene has been increased as the raw material of polyimide. However, traditional synthesis methods of durene require a large number of steps with lower efficiency. In this study, a novel synthesis method of a bifunctional integrated catalyst had been utilized, in whic...
Ausführliche Beschreibung

In recent years, the demand for durene has been increased as the raw material of polyimide. However, traditional synthesis methods of durene require a large number of steps with lower efficiency. In this study, a novel synthesis method of a bifunctional integrated catalyst had been utilized, in which the methanol synthesis catalyst Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 (CZA) and the aromatization catalyst Co-Nb/HZSM-5 were combined, to synthesize durene from syngas in one step. Syngas was converted to methanol and dimethyl ether (DME) followed by the production of different aromatics with a high concentration of durene through the shape selectivity of zeolite. The optimal reaction conditions of 330 °C, 4 MPa, 200 h−1, 3% Co loading, CZA/HZSM-5 = 3:2 and a unique pseudo-physical coating (PC) integrated method were applied to increase durene selectivity up to 39.71% in aromatics. Different techniques such as XRD, BET, XPS and NH3-TPD were employed to characterize different catalysts, and a variety of experiments were proceeded to compare different routes of methanol and FT synthesis. These results explain that the high selectivity of tetra-methylbenzene (tetra-MB) was due to the alkylation of trimethylbenzene (tri-MB) induced by methanol on HZSM-5 surface. This work demonstrated that the integrated catalyst could be advantageous for direct conversion of syngas to tri-MB and finally to the desired durene and it would open up the new avenues in future perspectives. Ausführliche Beschreibung