Kinetic comparison and simulation of methanol synthesis catalysts

Currently, few reports have been published on the quantitative comparison of catalysts for methanol synthesis from syngas in industry. The kinetic models of seven kinds of methanol synthesis catalysts at home and abroad were summarized in this paper. Through theoretical analysis and computational fluid dynamics simulation, the reaction rates of each kinetic model under the same operating conditions were calculated, the reaction behaviors of various types of catalysts in a single tube of the Lurgi-type methanol synthesis reactor were analyzed, and the key operating parameters such as temperature and concentration distributions, conversion and daily methanol yield were compared. The results show that the C-B catalyst has a relatively high reaction rate under syngas conditions, and the reaction tube filled with this catalyst has the highest daily methanol yield.