Spectro-kinetics of the methanol to hydrocarbons reaction combining online product analysis with UV-vis and FTIR spectroscopies throughout the space time evolution

The well-studied methanol to hydrocarbons reaction over a ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst has been used to develop a spectro-kinetic approach to obtain an overall reaction mechanism involving both retained species and gas-phase products. We combined two in situ spectroscopic techniques (ultraviolet-visible and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopies) with online product analysis to obtain the time-and space time-resolved evolution of the entire reaction media. A ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst was tested in two commercial spectroscopic cells at 400 degrees C using different space times (different inlet flow rates). Specifically, our work focusses on the effect of the space time (key parameter in any kinetic study) and how to tune other parameters such as partial pressure of methanol to resolve, from the spectroscopic and gas-phase points of view, the mechanisms of reaction and deactivation. Our approach reinforces the previous interpretation of these two combined networks in the selected reaction, thus, proving that the spectro-kinetic approach is a robust methodology to simultaneously build overall reaction and deactivation mechanisms.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study develops a spectro-kinetic approach to investigate the methanol to hydrocarbons reaction over a ZSM-5 zeolite catalyst. By combining in situ spectroscopic techniques and online product analysis, the time-and space-resolved evolution of the reaction media is obtained. The study focuses on the effect of space time and the tuning of other parameters to elucidate the reaction and deactivation mechanisms.