Catalytic Conversion of Methanol by Oxidative Dehydrogenation

This study investigates the effects of addition of oxygen on the oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of methanol when a fluorotetrasilicic mica ion-exchanged with palladium (Pd2+-TSM) was used as the catalyst. The reaction proceeded at a very low temperature in the presence of oxygen, and HCOOCH3 was obtained at high selectivity. By calculating the equilibrium conversion, it has been shown that substantial ODH took place for HCOOCH3 production. Consequently, this reaction would make dehydrogenation the dominant reaction at equilibrium. Not all the H dissociated from CH3OH was converted to H2O by oxidation. It has been shown that the H2O was not produced from oxidative dehydrogenation by the direct reaction of CH3OH and O2 when an attempt was made to carry out oxidative dehydrogenation using an isotope oxygen trace method in the gas phase. Therefore, when CH3OH was converted to CO2 and dehydrogenated to HCOOCH3, the C-O bonds were not dissociated.