A kinetic model for the synthesis of ethanol from syngas and methanol over an alkali-Co doped molybdenum sulfide catalyst: Model building and validation at bench scale

A set of experiments was run in laboratory and bench scale reactors over an alkali-Co doped molybdenum sulfide catalyst in order to develop and validate the kinetics of higher alcohol synthesis from syngas/methanol mixtures. The purpose is to generate a kinetic model useful to design a mixed alcohol process where methanol is recycled to the reactor to increase ethanol production. Experimental data from a laboratory scale reactor were fitted using a power-law model, considering a CO insertion reaction scheme. The model was validated with a group of experiments carried out at a bench scale reactor, consisting of experiments with methanol co-feeding and gas recycle. Finally, we also studied whether a model would be able to predict the effect of methanol co-feeding if its parameters were determined by fitting only the experiments where methanol co-feeding was not performed.