Synthesis of Higher Alcohols from Syngas over a K-Modified CoMoS Catalyst Supported on Novel Powder and Fiber Commercial Activated Carbons

In the present study, a series of K-modified CoMoS catalysts with compositions of 10% K, 3.6% Co, and 12 wt % Mo supported over novel commercial activated carbons such as powder materials (DAC and OBC-1) and fiber materials (fabric active sorption (TCA) and nonwoven activated material (AHM)) were prepared and characterized by Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), SEM-energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The catalytic activities for higher alcohol synthesis from syngas, conducted at T = 300-360 degrees C, P = 5 MPa, GHSV = 760 L h(-1) (kg cat)(-1), and H-2/CO = 1.0, were investigated. Cat-TCA and Cat-AHM have shown a filamentous morphology with a strip axial arrangement and that a few longitudinal grooves and many irregular particles are distributed on the fiber surfaces. The degree of entanglement of the strip axial arrangement in AHM was found to be more than that in TCA, thus leading to form tangled MoS2 slabs on AHM and long linear slabs on TCA with long rim sites. The obtained results revealed that the CO conversion increases in the order Cat-TCA < Cat-OBC1 < Cat-DAC < Cat-AHM. Ethanol, propanol-1, and methanol are the most predominant alcohol products in the collected liquid products, with the byproducts containing mainly butanol-1, isobutanol, amyl alcohol, and isoamyl alcohol. Cat-DAC and Cat-OBC-1 show higher selectivity toward C3+, C-4, propanol-1, butanol-1, isobutanol, and amyl alcohol-1 than Cat-TCA and Cat-AHM. For powdered activated carbons, microporous catalysts inhibited isomerization because the catalyst that contains the highest micropores (Cat-DAC) produced a considerable amount of linear alcohols compared with Cat-OBC-1.