Conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons: how zeolite cavity and pore size controls product selectivity

Liquid hydrocarbon fuels play an essential part in the global energy chain, owing to their high energy density and easy transportability. Olefins play a similar role in the production of consumer goods. In a post-oil society, fuel and olefin production will rely on alternative carbon sources, such as biomass, coal, natural gas, and CO(2). The methanol-to-hydrocarbons (MTH) process is a key step in such routes, and can be tuned into production of gasoline-rich (methanol to gasoline; MTG) or olefin-rich (methanol to olefins; MTO) product mixtures by proper choice of catalyst and reaction conditions. This Review presents several commercial MTH projects that have recently been realized, and also fundamental research into the synthesis of microporous materials for the targeted variation of selectivity and lifetime of the catalysts.     

Product selectivity in methanol to hydrocarbon conversion for isostructural compositions of AFI and CHA molecular sieves

Isostructural molecular sieves based upon AlPO₄ and SiO₂ chemistry were made for comparison of catalytic selectivity. The AFI and CHA structures were compared with B and Al substitution of SiO₂ and Mg and Si substitution in the AlPO₄ case. The conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons was studied. Materials were characterized for acidity by NH₃ TPD and NH₃ microcalorimetry. Methanol conversion was carried out with products analyzed by GC-MS and spent catalysts by ¹³C MAS NMR. Borosilicate sieves have acidity too low to carry out this catalytic transformation. Other substituting components were successful but product selectivity seemed to be governed by geometric features of the sieves, rather than by variable acidity due to different types of lattice substitution. Products from small pore molecular sieves SAPO-34 and SSZ-13 were largely olefinic and comprised of C₅ and smaller. The large pore sieves, SAPO-5, MAPO-5, and SSZ-24, all produced aromatic-rich products. A considerable quantity of the recovered hydrocarbon was incorporated into penta- and hexamethylbenzene.     

ZSM-5分子筛的粒径可控合成及其在甲醇转化中的催化作用

以四丙基氢氧化胺为模板剂、聚乙二醇为添加剂,水热合成了粒径在0.1～14 μm且分布均一的ZSM-5分子筛,并采用XRD、SEM、BET、Py-IR、NH₃-TPD和ICP等技术对其进行了表征,考察了不同粒径分子筛在甲醇转化制碳氢化合物反应中的催化作用。结果表明,通过调变PEG添加量、硅源种类和水含量以及控制陈化和晶化条件,可以在较大范围内调变分子筛晶粒尺寸。随着粒径的减小,ZSM-5晶粒的聚集程度、比表面积和Si/Al比提高,而结晶度、BrØnsted酸浓度和总酸量有所下降。在甲醇催化转化制碳氢化合物的反应中,粒径为0.1 μm的分子筛催化稳定性最好;随着粒径的增大,其稳定性逐渐下降,粒径为14 μm的分子筛催化剂寿命明显降低。同时,粒径对甲醇转化产物分布也有较大影响;小粒径分子筛有利于生成轻质烃类(C₁～C₄),而大粒径分子筛对C₅以上烷烃和芳烃的选择性较高。     

Conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons over metal-zeolite catalysts

Ni²⁺, Cr³⁺ and Pb²⁺ exchanged CaY zeolites including mixed forms like CrNiCaY and PbNiCaY were used to study methanol conversion. The selectivity of the reaction to olefin and paraffin formation depends on the type of samples, the activation of the catalyst and the reaction conditions.

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Methane formation route in the conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons

The influence factors and paths of methane formation during methanol to hydrocarbons （MTH） reaction were studied experimentally and thermodynamically. The fixed-bed reaction results show that the formation of methane was favored by not only high temperature, but also high feed velocity, low pressure, as well as weak acid sites dominated on deactivated catalyst. The thermodynamic analysis results indicate that methane would be formed via the decomposition reactions of methanol and DME, and the hydrogenolysis reactions of methanol and DME. The decomposition reactions are thermal chemistry processes and easily occurred at high temperature. However, they are influenced by catalyst and reaction conditions through DME intermediate. By contrast, the hydrogenolysis reactions belong to catalytic processes. Parallel experiments suggest that, in real MTH reactions, the hydrogenolysis reactions should be mainly enabled by surface active H atom which might come from hydrogen transfer reactions such as aromatization. But H2 will be involved if the catalyst has active components like NiO.     

Activation of hydrocarbons on acidic zeolites: superior selectivity of methylation of ethene with methanol to propene on weakly acidic catalysts

The study of methylation of ethene with methanol to propene over MFI zeolites with different heteroatoms has found that an efficient catalyst with weak acidities prevented the side reactions related with the formation of ethene oligomers from occurring, as evidenced by in situ IR spectroscopy, leading to superior propene selectivity in the product distribution.     

甲醇制烃（MTH）反应热力学研究

对甲醇制烃反应体系进行了热力学分析,计算了不同温度下各反应的焓变、吉布斯自由能变和反应平衡常数,采用平衡常数联立方程法估算了甲醇转化生成C2-C10烃的热力学平衡组成.计算结果表明：甲醇制烃为强放热反应,1 mol甲醇转化最大放热量约为90 kJ/mol;甲醇制烃体系中除甲醇脱水之外,大部分反应均可视为不可逆过程;高温低压不利于烷烃生成物,有利于芳烃和烯烃生成物.对计算结果与实验结果进行了比较,数据变化趋势较为一致.计算结果表明,甲醇制烃体系不受热力学的控制,催化剂的选择和反应条件的选择至关重要.     

Continuous conversion of methanol to higher hydrocarbons at ambient pressure

An iodozincate ionic liquid solvent and catalyst is used to convert methanol continuously to a wide variety of hydrocarbons at atmospheric pressure.     

Approaches to molecular imprinting based selectivity in capillary electrochromatography

The work done during the past decade in order to adapt molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to the capillary format and subsequently use these highly selective matrices for capillary electrochromatography (CEC) are reviewed in this article. MIPs are prepared utilizing a templated polymer synthesis where the template addresses the selectivity of the resulting polymer. These polymers possess binding characteristics that are comparable to the biological antibodies. Due to the polyclonality of the binding sites in the MIP, the separation result in severe peak broadening and tailing when performed in the isocratic mode. This was seen early in the development of MIPs as selective stationary phases in liquid chromatography (LC). As a mean of decreasing these problems, much effort was put into adapting the MIP to fit in CEC systems, that offers an efficiency that is superior to that in LC. Aiming to increase the efficiency of the MIP-CEC systems, different MIP formats have been developed that can be divided into three conceptually different categories, i.e., the monolithic, the microparticle and the coating. The strive for MIP formats that can be used in small bore capillaries has led to the development of MIP formats applicable to miniaturized systems approaching the chip format. Although prepared in order to perform MIP-CEC mediated separations, these formats can be used in a broad range of applications were the characteristics of the MIP, e.g. stability, selectivity and cost efficiency, could offer an interesting solution to cover the needs.     

Effect of the different modifications of A1PO-5 molecular sieve on its acidity and catalytic properties in methanol conversion to hydrocarbons

An AlPO-5 molecular sieve has been isomorphously substituted by one (Co or Si) or two (Co and Si) elements and studied in the catalytic conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons. The effect of different modifications on both acidity and catalytic behavior of this material was established and further discussed.     

Control of the selectivity in partial oxidation of hydrocarbons

A simple kinetic model for the partial oxidation of hydrocarbons on two types of sites was used to study the factors influencing the selectivity to the desired product. It is possible to increase the selectivity significantly by regulating the ratio of the surface concentrations of partial and deep oxidation sites by a periodic temperature treatment.     

Shape selectivity in the synthesis of chiral macrocyclic amides

Shape-persistent, optically-active arylamide macrocycles have been designed and approached by using a stepwise, convergent methodology. The source of chirality, an axially-chiral Binol scaffold, incorporates methoxy functionalities in the 2,2′ positions, and carboxylic functionalities in the external 3,3′ positions. The latter can be efficiently elaborated through aromatic amidation to introduce aromatic spacers of differing shapes. The peculiar arrangement of functionalities on the Binol skeleton functions as an element of rigidification of the covalent structure through the formation of stable intramolecular hydrogen bonds. When this element is counterbalanced by the use of a flexible 3,3′-diaminobiphenyl as a spacer, yields for the macrocyclization step increase to values higher than 50%. The recognition properties of this particular macrocycle have been exploited and, while they indicate modest binding affinities towards carboxylate anions, the additional stabilization of neighbouring amide functionalities suitably placed within the covalent framework induces detectable binding of proper difunctional carboxylates.     

Diffusion of hydrocarbons in mordenite and molecular-sieve selectivity of mordenite catalysts

The diffusion of n-octane and n-propylbenzene in mordenite and the molecularsieve selectivity in hydrocracking of octane-propylbenzene binary mixtures over a mordenite catalyst have been studied. The hydrocarbon diffusivities and molecular-sieve selectivity change are accounted for by diffusion through mordenite channel mouths poisoned with an easily adsorbable hydrocarbon.

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Surprising selectivity in the transformation of dimethoxy azaindoles

Transformation of 4,7-dimethoxy-6-azaindole into 4-hydroxy-7-methoxy-6-azaindole or 7-hydroxy-4-methoxy-6-azaindole can be readily controlled by careful selection of a reagent. Treatment with concentrated HCl results in hydrolysis at the 4-position exclusively, while TMS-I provides demethylation at the 7-position only. Products were unambiguously identified by single crystal X-ray crystallography.     

Sensitivity of metal thiolate piezoquartz sensor coatings to hydrocarbons, methanol, and water

Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Ag(I), and Pb(II) octadecylthiolates were used as chemical coatings for piezoquartz (PQR) sensors sensitive to hydrocarbon, alcohol, and water vapors. The sensitivity of these PQR sensors in a stationary flow mode at 25 °C varies from 0.5 to 5 Hz/(mg/L) depending on the composition of the coating and nature of the analyte. An array of eight PQR sensors with these coatings gives a sensor image of the corresponding analyte, which hardly varies with the analyte concentration. The sensitivity of the PQR sensors with the coatings studied changed by no more than 10–15% upon storage for several months. __________ Translated from Teoreticheskaya i éksperimental’naya Khimiya, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp. 371–376, November–December, 2006.