Effects of Sulfur Contamination on Cu-Based Methanol-Synthesis Catalysts
A Structured Review and Quantitative Synthesis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58445/rars.4310Keywords:
methanol synthesis, Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃, sulfur poisoning, hydrogen sulfide, catalyst deactivation, quantitative synthesis, kinetic model transferabilityAbstract
Sulfur contamination can deactivate copper-based methanol-synthesis catalysts, but published effects are hard to compare because experiments use different catalysts, exposure methods, and performance measures. This study asked how much sulfur reduces performance and which conditions are linked to greater damage. Each sulfur-exposed result was traced to its source, matched with a clean or pre-exposure value from the same study, and converted to retention and loss. The primary analysis included three studies, nine independent H₂S exposures, and 13 readouts; comparable evidence was unavailable for other sulfur species. Losses ranged from 4.5% to 41.1%. Giving each study equal influence produced a descriptive center of 20.6% loss, not a variance-weighted pooled effect. A random-effects estimate could not be calculated because sample sizes and outcome variances were unavailable and several readouts came from the same exposures. Longer exposure was linked to greater damage in the clearest within-study comparison. Concentration, catalyst formulation, temperature, and exposure method may also matter, but their independent effects could not be separated. The evidence was insufficient for a general sulfur concentration-time predictor. A separate clean-In₂O₃ model was reproduced successfully, but transferred inconsistently and cannot predict sulfur poisoning of Cu/ZnO/Al₂O₃. Overall, H₂S consistently impaired methanol performance, but the effect remained strongly condition-dependent, supporting exposure prevention and standardized reporting.
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