Influence of Reaction Conditions on Methanol Synthesis and WGS Reaction in the Syngas-to-DME Process

A series of CuO-ZnO catalysts (with different Cu/Zn molar ratios) were prepared, and evaluated under the reaction conditions of syngas-to-dimethyl ether (DME) with three sorts of feed gas and different space velocity. The catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and temperature-programmed reduction (TPR). The experiment results showed that the reaction conditions of syngas-to-DME process greatly affected the methanol synthesis and WGS reaction. The influence caused by Cu/Zn molar ratio was quite different on the two reactions; increasing of percentage of CO2 in feed gas was unfavorable for catalyst activity, and also inhibited both reactions; enhancement of reaction space velocity heavily influenced the performance of the catalyst, and the benefits were relatively less for methanol synthesis than for the WGS reaction.