The economical production of alcohol fuels from coal-derived synthesis gas. Quarterly technical progress report number 12, July 1--September 30, 1994

Both plug-flow microreactor systems at WVU are now functioning. Screening runs on these systems were started using carbide and nitride catalysts first, to avoid any question of contamination of the system with sulfur. The carbide and nitride catalysts are characterized by high activity but low selectivity towards alcohols. The Chevrel-phase catalysts tested have much lower activities but may be more selective to alcohols. Catalyst synthesis procedures are attempting to offset this tendency, and also to characterize and prepare sulfide catalyst by other approaches. At UCC and P, test runs on the reactor system have commenced. Higher alcohols up to butanol were observed and identified at high temperatures. Modeling studies have concentrated on the catalytic membrane reactor. The topical report, originally submitted last quarter, was revised after some errors were found. This report includes the design and economics for the seven cases discussed in previous quarterly reports. In the topical report, it is shown that a judicious choice of coal:natural gas feed ratio to the alcohol synthesis process allows the Shell Gasifier to be nearly competitive with natural gas priced at of $3.00/MMBtu. The advantage of the Shell Gasifier over the Texaco Gasifier is that the former produces a syngas with a lower H{sub 2}:CO ratio. When the feed to the process is coal only, there is no difference in the projected economics that would favor one gasifier over the other. The potential of co-generation of electric power with high alcohol fuel additives has been investigated. Preliminary results have revealed that a once-through alcohol synthesis process with minimal gas clean-up may provide an attractive alternative to current designs given the prevailing economic status of IGCC units