In a trend similar to the syngas production, different investigations have been carried out on the suitable catalysts and
reaction conditions for the syngas to methanol (SGTM) process.Ma
et al. (2008)studied the sulfur tolerance potentials of transition
metals supported with oxides as catalysts for the SGTM reaction.
Syngas conversion was performed at 240
C, using a feed composition ratio of ~2 for hydrogen to carbon monoxide at a space velocity of 1000 h
1
and 3.0 MPa pressure. The authors employed
30 ppm of hydrogen sulfide gas for the deactivation studies. Pd/CeO2catalyst produced the best syngas conversion and methanol
selectivity that was very stable for 100 h. They attributed the activity to the oxidizable behavior of hydrogen sulfide over this
catalyst. Cu supported with ZnO catalyst yields the worst stability
properties, because its activity rapidly decayed after 7 h, due to high
susceptibility to trapping hydrogen sulfide. On the other hand, Pd/
Al2O3 catalyst showed only a reduction of 5.3% activity after the
100 h of reaction. Catalysts containing Pd supported with oxides or
other materials have been identified as good candidates for the
SGTM and related processes