Ethanol is considered as an alternative synthetic fuel to be used in automobiles or as a potential source of hydrogen for fuel cells. An indirect route of ethanol synthesis from syngas through dimethyl ether carbonylation followed by methyl acetate (MA) hydrogenation shows an attractive prospect due to its simple process and high carbon efficiency. This work reports a highly efficient Cu-ZnO/SBA-15 catalyst prepared by facile solid-state grinding method for the hydrogenation of methyl acetate (MA). With the help of the organic template in the parent SBA-15, both copper and zinc species were well encapsulated in the mesopores of SBA-15 with high dispersion. The mixed homogeneity and interaction between copper and zinc species was also enhanced as well by the template-contained SBA-15, and the formation of Cu+ species was prompted during the reduction. Moreover, TOFCu(0) was found to linearly increase with the Cu+/Cu0 ratio, indicating that a high proportion of Cu+/Cu0 induced by ZnO should be one of the important reasons for the excellent performance (Figure 1). It seems that the Cu+ species originated from Cu-ZnOx species are more active than that from Cu-O-Si species in the activation of MA. These results may provide an inspiration in rational design of Cu-ZnO based catalysts for esters hydrogenation.

Hydrogenation of methyl acetate to ethanol by Cu/ZnO catalyst encapsulated in SBA-15

254th National Meeting (2017)

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