ZR-CONTAINING PILLARED INTERLAYER CLAYS .4. COPPER CONTAINING CATALYSTS FOR THE SYNTHESIS GAS REACTION

Pillared interlayer clays (PILC) have been prepared by ion exchange with Zr hydroxy polymers and combined in a physical mixture with a Cu/ZnO catalyst to produce composite catalysts for the CO/H//2 reaction. The Cu/ZnO catalyst alone produces methanol in high selectivity. However, when the catalyst is prereduced the initial activity for the synthesis of methanol is low and increases markedly over a 4 h period. When the Cu/ZnO is not prereduced the initial activity is again low but the activity reaches its maximum value after only 1 h.