On December 28, 2020 the project on R&D of guard catalyst for removing carbonyl iron/carbonyl nickel undertaken by the SINOPEC Nanjing Chemical Research Institute (NCRI) has passed the research achievements appraisal organized by the Sinopec Science and Technology Division. The experts attending the appraisal meeting have suggested speeding up the commercial application tests as soon as possible.

The quick development of coal chemicals industry has greatly boosted China’s methanol production capacity. In the course of methanol production, the carbonyl iron and carbonyl nickel entrained by the syngas can cause great harm to the methanol synthesis catalyst. The existence of carbonyl iron/carbonyl nickel not only can reduce the service life of methanol synthesis catalyst, but also can increase the number and amount of by-products in raw methanol, leading to discoloration of methanol, and generation of long chain alkanes, ethers and polyols along with blockage of reaction equipment. How to effectively remove the carbonyl iron and carbonyl nickel, which are the catalyst poison, has become a tough issue which should be urgently solved.

After having studied the effect of different copper contents, different kinds of cocatalysts and their blending methods on the activity of guard catalyst, the NCRI research workers developed the MCP-1 guard catalyst for removing carbonyl iron/carbonyl nickel from syngas.Under appropriate reaction conditions, the iron-nickel capacity of MCP-1 guard catalyst can reach 2.136 g/L in 12 h, with the Fe and Ni removal rate equating to 94.2%.The results for testing the sulphur penetration capacity of MCP-1 guard catalyst have revealed that this guard catalyst has a sulphur penetration capacity of 22%, with its desulfurization accuracy reaching an ng/g level, which is better than the performance indicator of traditional zinc oxide desulfurization agent. The results of testing guard catalyst prepared in the kilogram-level scale-up experiments have shown that the guard catalyst obtained thereby has attained a similar iron-nickel capacity in 12 h and Fe/Ni removal rate as those of MCP-1 guard catalyst prepared in the small scale.