Title : Commissioning of a lab-scale alcohol synthesis plant and first operation results using a Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 methanol synthesis catalyst
Abstract:
Broadening the research infrastructure of BEST – Bioenergy and Sustainable Technologies GmbH, a lab scale alcohol synthesis plant is being constructed at the Syngas Platform Vienna as of March 2026. The primary aim of the plant is to enable the investigation of the conversion of CO2 to alcohols. Thereby, different catalysts can be used to yield either mainly methanol or mixed alcohols. To accommodate the harsh conditions of mixed alcohols synthesis, the plant has been designed for a maximum operating pressure of 200 barg and a maximum operating temperature of 300 °C. As the plant includes a system to provide syngas mixtures of any desired ratio of H2, CO, CO2 as well as N2 from gas bottles, a multitude of different experiments becomes feasible. Alternatively, it is even possible to feed syngas from actual gasifiers such as BEST’s 1 MW dual fluidized bed gasifier into the alcohol synthesis plant. In order to further broaden the array of possible experiments, the plant is fit with a recycle and a flexible reactor system consisting of three individual fixed bed reactors that can be run in parallel or in series and provide intermediate sampling and measuring points while being tempered by thermal oil.
In the scope of the presented work, a commercial Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 methanol synthesis catalyst shall be used to commission the plant. Parameter variation experiments are intended, encompassing process parameters such as pressure, temperature, gas hourly space velocity and composition as well as recycle rate. Through this, baseline data for the plant shall be generated. The analysis of this data shall be presented together with lessons learned in course of commissioning.
