TITLE: LaPorte Liquid-Phase Methanol Process Development Unit: Continued Operation in Liquid-Entrained Catalyst Mode: Final Report.

INST.  AUTHOR: Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA.

SPONSOR: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA.*Department of Energy, Washington, DC.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Department of Energy [DE],  Feb 87,  85p.

NTIS ORDER NO.: DE87006897/INW

ABSTRACT:

The LaPorte LPMEOH Process Development Unit (PDU) was operated in July 1985 under Contract No. DE-AC22-85PC80007. This test (Run E-4) utilized catalyst powder F21/OE75-35 at an initial 41 wt % (oxide basis) solids concentration. This slurry was successfully activated using an improved in-situ reduction technique. Both CO-rich (H sub 2 /CO = 0.69) and balanced (H sub 2 /CO = 2.89) reactor feed gas were tested at 250 deg C (482 deg F) and 5270 kPa (765 psia). Superficial gas and liquid velocities were varied from 12.2 to 15.6 cm/s (0.40 to 0.51 ft/s) and 1.8 to 6.5 cm/s (0.06 to 0.21 ft/s), respectively. Slurry concentration was also changed from 47.4 wt % to 33 wt %. The PDU achieved a 100% on-stream factor and was shut down after 231 hours of operation. Methanol productivity for all cases was less than the laboratory prediction. A mass transfer limitation and/or inadequate gas/slurry mixing are believed to exist in the present LPMEOH reactor system at elevated solids loadings (above about 30 wt %).  Future work to identify other liquid media and reactor internals is planned within other tasks of this program. 2 refs., 7 figs., 9 tabs. (ERA citation 12:019909)

REPORT  NUMBER: EPRI-AP-5050

CONTRACT  NUMBER: AC22-85PC80007