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t h e d y n a m i c s i n t h e working c a t a l y s t , in p a r t i c u l a r the adsorption-assisted d e s o r p t i o n or d e c o m p o s i t i o n of ammonia. W.M.H. S a c h t l e r (Evanston, Illinois, USA) demonstrated that several structure-sensitive reactions can occur on Rh catalysts. Some reactions, such as methanol svntbesis, hydroformvlat ion of olefins and the hydrogenation of aldehydes to alcohols, are thought to require only very small Rh ensembles. By usin Z Zn to block Rh atoms in larger ensembles, Sachtler found that small Rh ensembles were created. This was demonstrated h\ the supression of hydrogen dissociation, as manifested bv a decreased hydrogenation function and increased hydroformvlation act ivity. All c o m m u n i c a t i o n s were of a h i g h s t a n d a r d and t h e o r g a n i s i n g c o m m i t t e e s a r e to be c o n g r a t u l a t e d on a s s e m b l i n g s u c h a var ied nnd i nt e r e s t i ng programme l e a d i n g to h i g h l y s u c c e s s f u l m e e t i n g s . Pretoria (South Africa) A c c e p t e d 2 1 s t O c t o b e r 1985

MEETING

Ruud S n e l

REPORT

CHINA-JAPAN SYMPOSIUM ON COAL AND C. CHEMISTRY Taiyuan Shanxi, China, llth - ]5th ~eptember I~)85

T h l s symposium was o r g a n i s e d by t h e I n s t i t u t e of Coal C h e m i s t r y , Aca4emia S i n i c a , and was s p o n s o r e d by t h e C h i n e s e Academy of S c i e n c e , tile J a p a n - C h i n a C u l t u r a l Exchange A s s o c i a t i o n and t h e .Japan Academv P r o m o t i n g A s s o c i a t i o n . T h e r e were i n t o t a l 60 l e c t u r e s , i n c l u d i n g f o u r i n v i t e d l e c t u r e s , of which 36 were a b o u t Coal C h e m i s t r y and 24 a b o u t C 1 C h e m i s t r y . At] the contributions were i n c l u d e d i n " C h i n a - J a p a n Symposium on Coat and C] C h e m i s t r y " , in t y p e - s c r i p t form, which was a v a i l a b l e b e f o r e h a n d . The Symposium opened w i t h f o u r p l e n a r y l e c t u r e s , t h e s e b e i n g : "Overview o f Coal C h e m i s t r y i n J a p a n " , by K. Ouchi ( J a p a n ) ; "Development of S y n f u e ] T e c h n o l ogy i n C h i n a " , by Han-Chen Bao ( C h i n a ) ; "Advances i n C a t a l y s i s of C. C h e m i s t r y i n J a p a n " , by H. Tominaga ( J a p a n ) ; and " H i g h l y D i s p e r s e d f r o n C a t a l y s t s for F i s c h e r - T r o p s e h S y n t h e s i s " , by Lin-Wu Lin ( C h i n a ) . The l e c t u r e s i n t h e s e s s i o n on C C h e m i s t r y were d i v i d e d into f o u r major t o p i c s : CO h y d r o g e n a t i o n , c o n v e r s i o n ~f m e t h a n o l , s y n t h e s i s o f h i g h e r a l c o h o l s from C0/H 2 and a l k y l a t i o n o f a r o m a t i c h y d r o c a r b o n s . The l a r g e s t proportion of t h e l e c t u r e s on C O - h y d r o g e n a t i o n were d e v o t e d to t h e d e s i g n , characterisation and d e v e l o p m e n t o f c a t a l y s t s . I . Mochida (Kyushu U n i v e r s i t y , J a p a n ) showed t h a t the catalytic activity of Rh/TiO 2 ls influenced significantly by reduction conditions and that the catalyst system can be modified to achieve the most favourable metal-support interaction. Similarly, T. Uchijima (University of Tsukuba, Japan) had found that the strong metal-support interaction oxides such as TiO- and Nb_O_ have excellent CO hydrogenation activities when used in z combinatlon wi~hJRh and Pd. Donbai Liang'(Institute of Chemical Physics, Dalian, China) reported evidence from in-situ Mossbauer spectroscopy for an influence of metal-support and metal-metal interactions on the reactivity of geRu FischerTropsch catalysts, gignan Jiang (Institute of Chemical Physics, Dallas, China) showed that linear and bridged forms of CO adspecies exist on a Pt-a]umina surface and reported kinetic results which showed that the bridged form of adsorbed CO species makes the greater contribution to methanation reaction rate. Qi Wang (Institute of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China) introduced studies, using TPR, TPD and TPSR of a Cu-ZnO-AI.O 3 catalyst for the low-temperature COshift reaction. Y. Murakaml (Nagoya Unlversxty, Japan) discussed the design of a Fischer-Tropsch catalyst in which the promoter for a Ru-AI^O 3 combination was selected on the basis of the rate constants of surface rear{ion measured by the PSRA method. Some papers in this part dealt with new process developments in Fischer-Tropseh synthesis. For example, Hengshen Lin (Institute of Coal Chemistry, Shanxi, China) reported a direct synthesis of high-octane number gasoline from syngas in a two-stage system whlch uses a modified fused Fe catalyst

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_ Volume 20, No. 1-2 - January 1986

323

and a s p e c i f i c z e o l i t e . H. Ozaki ( N i p p o n Mining Co. 1,td., Japan) investigated the p r o p e r t i e s o f r u t h e n i u m o x i d e s a s c a t a l y s t s in a s l u r r y reactor for the s y n t h e s i s o f k e r o s i n e and d i e s e l f u e l from s y n - g a s . K. F u j i m o t o (University of Tokyo, J a p a n ) found t h a t s y n t h e s i s g a s was c o n v e r t e d t o LPC s e l e c t i v e l y w i t h an a l m o s t c o m p l e t e l a c k o f m e t h a n e and a r o m a t i c h y d r o c a r b o n s by u s i n g h y b r i d c a t a l y s t s composed o f m e t h a n o l s y n t h e s i s c a t a l y s t s and a m o d i f i e d Y - t y p e zeolite. In t h e p a p e r s on t h e c o n v e r s i o n o f m e t h a n o l , T. [Inui (Kyoto U n i v e r s i t y , ,]apnn) f o u n d , by e l a b o r a t i n g t h e p r e p a r a t i o n m e t h o d s f o r m e t a l l o s i l i c a t e s , that a novel F e - s i l i c a t e was s u i t a b l e f o r t h e s e l e c t i v e p r e p a r a t i o n o f l i g h t olefins from m e t h a n o l ; t h e t o t a l s e l e c t i v i t y t o C - C4 o l e f i n s was a s high as 97.6 reel.% w i t h r e s p e c t t o c a r b o n . Rongyao Ch;~ (Institute of Chemistry, BeijJng, C h i n a ) s p o k e on t h e d i r e c t s y n t h e s i s o f a c e t i c a n h y d r i d e a t a h i g h r a t e by t h e c a r b o n v l a t i o n o f m e t h a n o l in the p r e s e n c e o f a c e t i c a c i d and m e t h y l i o d i d e u n d e r relatively m i l d c o n d i t i o n s w i t h 100% s e l e c t i v i t v o v e r a c i s - d i c a r b o n y ] rhodium complex anchored on copolymers of 2-vinylpyridine. N. lsogai (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company Inc., Japan) discussed the homo]ogatJon of methanol by cobalt as the main catalyst. High selectivity to neat ethanol was achieved by a system composed o f Co-Ru-R3PO or Co-(M)-R3P c a t a l y s t s . Q i n g n i a n Dong ( I n s t i t u t e o f Coal (ihem[stry, Shanxi, China) investigated the conversion of methanol to hydrocarbons over HZSH-5 zeolite using FT-IR. He found that dimethyl ether, the initial intermediate species, was formed mainly on aprotic sites; the dimethy] ether was then transferred to protonic sites where it reacted with methanol to form another ether-like species so that: the carbon-cha~n was lengthened. The lectures about the synthesis of higher alcohols from CO-H? dealt most:Iv with another system of catalysts. .]inviao LJu (Tsinghua University, China) invest igated alkal [ oxides added to methanol cata]ysts and found that the coprecipitation catalyst Cu-Co-Cr had high activity and selectivity for the formation of higher alcohols; alkaline oxides had a considerable doping effect: on the reaction. It was found by X-ray examination that the active phase of the catalyst was a Co-Cu entity. Yuq:in Niu (Institute of Coal Chemistry, Shanxi, C h i n a ) i n t r o d u c e d a s p i n e l t v p e c a t a l v s t composed o f CuCr204 and CuCo^O 4 f o r the synthesis of higher aIcohols fromsvngas, the activities and se]ec~ivities b e i n g g o o d , Qiming Zhu ( T s i n g h u a U n i v e r s i t y , C h i n a ) p r e s e n t e d fundamental rese a r c h on t h e d i r e c t s y n t h e s i s o f f u e ] - g r a d e m e t h a n o l from CO-H 2 o v e r C u - b a s e d catalysts; techniques used included in-situ IR, TPD-MS, XRD, transient response and conventional kinetic methods. He assumed that methanol synthesis proceeds through ~u]tip]e pathways: the role of CO is to maintain the existence of M-OH and M-O on the catalyst surface and to create a new path-way for the hydrogenation of CO to form methanol. Jinsheng Zhao (Tianjin University, China) discussed the effect of potassium ions on the structure and properties of catalysts for the synthesis of higher alcohols. He found that segregation occurs in the homogeneous solid solution of the catalyst precursor due to different interactions of K20 and that, as a result, the reduction temperature and the specific surface area are both lowered and the Cu particle size in the reduced catalyst is increased. There were two lectures about the alkylatJon of aromatic hydrocarbons. T. Yashima (Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan) investigated the mono-methylation of toluene, p-xy]ene or 1,2,4-trimethv]-benzene with syn-gas on composite catalysts (Zn-Cr/ZSM-5) under 30 arm and at a temperature of 300-500°C. The use of the shape selective ZSN-5 zeolite resulted in the formation of the smallest isomer in the mono-methylated products. Guoquan Chen (Institute of Chemical Physics, Dalian, China) described the alkylation of toluene by methanol on the ring or side-chain. A series of zeolite catalysts have been prepared, evaluated and characterised by TPD, IR and ESCA. The X-zeolite exchanged with alkali metal ions and further (loped with H3BO 3 and KOH was found to be most effective. In addition to the oral presentations, there was a panel discussion during the C 1 chemistry session. Topics such as new process developments in FischerTrops~h synthesis and overviews of catalyst design were discussed. Taiyuan, Shanxi, China Accepted 3rd November 1985

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- Volume 20, No. 1--2 -- January 1986

Jinglai Zhou Dingzhu Wang