Efficient production of ethanol from coal-based syngas

With the increasing demands of energy, ethanol is actively considered as a promising alternative fuel for automobile and other utilizations. The worldwide attention has been currently attracted on the biomass, which can be effectively converted into ethanol by either biological or chemical methods. However, it seems that nature cannot provide both food and fuel for a still growing and increasingly energy-hungry world population in the near future. Syngas (a mixture of CO and H2) conversion over metal-based catalysts to ethanol offers a good alternative, in which the syngas can be conveniently manufactured from natural gas and coal at present and from biomass in the future. In this presentation, Rh-based catalysts and the related catalytic processes for the manufacture of ethanol and other C2 hydrogenates, which as the by-products can be readily hydrogenated to ethanol, will be demonstrated, and the emphasis will be focused on the modification of the Rh-Mn catalysts with the carbon nanotubes as the effective additive and even substrates. Some novel results with non-noble metals and oxides will also introduced, which show that a comparable catalytic performance for producing ethanol can be achieved over a CNT-encapsulated oxide catalyst. And the mechanism related will be also discussed