Progress (WEEK 6)

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   We have further investigated the methanol to gasoline process by varying the flow rate of methanol feed while keeping the temperature of the reactor constant. The amount of methanol stock was maintained at 20 ml, while the flow rate was decreased from 60ml/hr to 7.5ml/hr. The reactor and condenser temperature were set at 600oC and 1oC respectively. The product has been analyzed by using gas chromatography along with mass spectroscopy, and benzene and toluene were detected in our sample. The benzene and toulene were confirmed by using an on-line library and the major mass number peaks of 91 and 78 respectively. According to the experimental results obtained by Chang, methanol conversion catalyzed by the zeolite ZSM-5 proceeds in the formation of benzene, toulene  and the paraffins. Thus our obtained results indicate that the reaction might have gone to completion, since benzene and toluene are among the final products of the MTG conversion pathway.

Lastly we performed another experiment where we lowered the temperature of the reactor to 500oC and kept a flow rate of 15ml/hr. The nitrogen flow rate was 80cc/min. Dodecane liquid was used to trap the vapors formed, which would otherwise be lost in the fume hoods. The product collected in the liquid dodecane was analyzed by using gas chromatography. The products detected were toulene, benzene, and possibly methyl cyclopentane, 2-pentene, and pentene. Also some methanol was detected in this trial.  The calculations for the residence time were done by finding the ratio of the volume that the catalyst has occupied inside the reactor to the flow rate of the methanol feed. 


The future work will be to verify that the temperature inside the reactor is the same as the one set by the controller. This will be done by inserting a thermocouple inside the reactor. We will also attempt to activate the catalyst before the reaction would take place by running nitrogen flow inside the reactor.