Investigating the Stability of Iron-Molybdenum Unsupported Catalysts in the Catalytic Conversion Reaction of Methanol to Formaldehyde

Today, catalytic processes produce many chemicals. Meanwhile, the catalytic conversion of methanol to formaldehyde is of great importance due to the availability and cheapness of methanol, the convenience and low cost of the production process and the consumption of up to 40 million tons of formaldehyde per year. The catalyst currently used in the industry is an unsupported catalyst of iron and molybdenum, whose exact composition and manufacturing method remain proprietary due to the importance of the subject. In this research, iron-molybdenum unsupported catalyst with Mo/Fe ratios=1.7,2,3 was prepared by co-precipitation method. The results obtained from the reactor tests show that Mo/Fe=1.7 catalyst has the best performance among unsupported catalysts. Checking the stability of catalysts after being under current for 10 hours in relation to this catalyst shows a 30% drop in the conversion of methanol to formaldehyde.