Development and Analysis of a Methanol-to-Gasoline Reaction Setup for use in an Undergraduate Setting

The primary goal of this research was to develop a framework for a setup for use in an undergraduate laboratory setting to study catalyzed reactions. A setup was developed with packed ZSM-5 catalyst for the Methanol-to-Gasoline (MTG) reaction. This research demonstrates and explains some of the trends that can be observed in catalytic reactions based on the effects of various process variables that can be used in a unit operations laboratory. Process conditions such as temperature, particle diameter, and nitrogen flow rate were studied. The temperature trials confirmed that 375 ° was the optimal temperature for methanol conversion. Selectivity towards higher molecular weight aromatics instead of the lower molecular weight aromatics was observed as temperature increased. Nitrogen flow rate was found to be inversely related to methanol conversion. No noticeable trends were found when the particle diameter was varied