Initial Rate of Formation of Methyl Formate from Methanol over a Copper Catalyst

Abstract

A method of obtaining reliable kinetic data for the reaction of methanol over a copper catalyst (180°C, 1 atm) is described.
On account of a significant decay in the catalytic activity, it was difficult to derive a rate equation from experimental data without corrections. Thus the decays of the catalytic activity were measured under standard conditions, and the resulting decay rates were used to correct and normalize the experimental data.
The normalized data could be expressed by the experimental equation v₀=. Since this being a good approximation of the theoretically predicted equation
where k=1.83mol/g-cat.hr and K_MeOH = 9.94atm^-1, it was concluded that the treatment presnted in this paper is reasonable.