TITLE: Sulfur Poisoning of Catalysts. Quarterly Progress Report, 1 October--31 December 1976.

AUTHOR: W. E. Isakson;   K. M. Sancier;   P. R. Wentrcek;   H. Wise;   B. J. Wood.

INST.  AUTHOR: Stanford Research Inst., Menlo Park, Calif.

SPONSOR: Energy Research and Development Administration.

LANGUAGE: English

PUB.  TYPE: Technical Report

PUB.  COUNTRY: United States

SOURCE: Energy Research and Development Administration [ERDA],  1 Feb 77, 37p.

ABSTRACT:

The emphasis in the work has been shifted from sulfur poisoning of catalysts for methanol synthesis to the role of carbon in catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. In the latter, the preparation of catalysts by the reduction of iron oxides and then their carburization was studied by thermogravimetric and thermomagnetic techniques. This provided information on the processes involved in reduction and carburization, activation energies, kinetics, stoichiometry, phase transformations, crystallite size, Curie temperature, surface reactivity, etc. Further work on methanol synthesis catalysts pointed to copper as the primary gateway for the accumulation of sulfur. The surface of the catalyst was examined by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive x-ray analysis with the aim of determining the distribution of copper and zinc and evaluating the possibility of mobility on the catalyst surface of the adsorbed sulfur atoms to the zinc oxide phase. It was not possible to differentiate (or resolve) the copper and zinc phases on the catalyst surface so the possibility of sulfur mobility is being investigated by Auger electron spectroscopy. (ERA citation 02:037219)

CONTRACT  NUMBER: EY-76-C-02-0060