Origins of Unusual Alcohol Selectivities over Mixed MgAl Oxide-Supported K/MoS2 Catalysts for Higher Alcohol Synthesis from Syngas

Abstract

A series of MoS2 catalysts supported on Mg/Al hydrotalcite-derived mixed-metal oxide (MMO) supports promoted with K2CO3 is used for alcohol synthesis via CO hydrogenation. Alcohol selectivities are found to vary greatly when the Mo is loaded on the support at 5 wt % compared with 15 wt % Mo samples, all with a Mo/K atomic ratio of 1:1. The most striking difference between the catalysts is the comparatively low methanol and high C3+ alcohol selectivities and productivities achieved with the 5% Mo catalyst. This catalyst also produces more ethane than the 15% Mo catalyst, which is shown to be associated with ethanol dehydration and hydrogenation over residual acid sites on this catalyst with lower K content. A series of catalysts with common composition (5% Mo and 3% K supported on MMO) prepared in different manners all yield similar catalytic selectivities, thus showing that selectivity is predominately controlled by the MMO-to-Mo ratio rather than the synthesis method. When the Mo loading is the same, cat...