LPG Synthesis from Syngas over Cu/ZnO-Pd-β Catalysts Prepared by Ultrasonic Spray Pyrolysis

Abstract

Synthesis of nanoCu/ZnO catalyst for LPG production was prepared by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis (USP). Hollow spherical particles were obtained by USP technique using an aqueous solution of Cu (NO3)3.6H2O and Zn (NO3)3.3H2O with different concentration of 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 molar under the pyrolysis temperatures of 600, 700 and 800°C. Mists of the solution were generated from the precursor solution by ultra sonic vibrators at frequency of ~1.7 MHz. The physicochemical properties of catalysts were characterized by X-ray diffraction, temperature-programmed reduction, scanning electron microscope, nitrogen adsorption-desorption, and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The results showed that increasing in precursor concentration resulted in a large particle and particles size distributed in a range of 0.63-1.21 μm. Particles prepared at pyrolysis temperature 700°C exhibited homogeneous in size and shape compared to other temperature. The catalytic activity of nanoCu/ZnO-Pd-β catalysts was performed in a fixed-bed reactor for synthesizing LPG. The reaction took place at 260°C, 3.0 MPa, and the ratio of H2/CO = 2/1. All the products from the reactor were in gaseous state, and analyzed by on-line gas chromatography. The results showed that %CO conversion was high but decreased rapidly with increasing reaction time. Cu/ZnO catalyst prepared by co-precipitation gave higher %CO conversion than that prepared by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis. Moreover, hydrocarbon product distribution for Cu/ZnO catalyst produced at concentration 0.1 M 700°C by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis gave the highest LPG selectivity.