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AssigneeAlbemarle Corporation
InventorsRonald C. Stites, Shakeel H. Tirmizi, Karl Kharas
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The present invention provides methods to maintain selectivity to ethanol from syngas during mixed-alcohol synthesis when methanol is being recycled. In some variations, syngas is fed to an alcohol-synthesis reactor that contains a sulfided metal catalyst, and methanol is separated from ethanol to form a methanol recycle stream that contains sulfur-containing compounds. Recycling the methanol stream back to the alcohol-synthesis reactor allows for adding sulfur to, or reducing sulfur loss from, the sulfided metal catalyst. Optionally, additional sulfur compounds may be introduced to maintain sulfur levels in sulfided metal catalysts. Preferred sulfiding agents, concentrations, and recycle strategies are disclosed herein.
A method of producing ethanol from syngas, said method comprising:
The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein said methanol recycle stream has a sulfur-atom concentration of at least 10 ppm S.
A method of producing ethanol from syngas, said method comprising:
A method of producing ethanol from syngas, said method comprising:
An apparatus adapted for carrying out the method of any one of the preceding claims.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.