We came up with a system of catalysts that can be useful in manufacturing methanol and higher alcohols from carbon monoxide and hydrogen at low temperature and pressure. These were prepared by adding alkaline potassium oxide to a mixture of oxides of copper, cobalt and chrome. The BET measurements of the catalysts gave 16.5㎡/g for surface area and the X-ray diffraction data indicated the presence of partly crystalline cupric oxide and cobalt chromite mixture.
The activity was relatively high for the formation of methanol and, at temperatures higher than 300 ℃, C₂, C₃ and C₄ alcohols were also produced. The reaction was closely described by the Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism, in which the rate determining step was assumed to be the trimolecular surface reaction. Thus we could write the rate of reaction at 280 ℃ as, （f_cof²_H2-f_CH3OH/K_eq）/(A+Bf_co+Cf_H2+Df_CH3OH)³, where f denotes the fugacity of each gas, K_eq the equilibrium constant and A,B,C,D empirical constants.