Mitigation of Fouling on Skeletal Copper Catalysts for Methyl Formate Hydrogenolysis by Addition of Chromia

摘要

The hydrogenolysis of natural fatty acid esters for the production of fatty alcohols has been operated as a large-scale industrial process for more than five decades. The hydrogenolysis of diesters to diols for the production of polyesters, and of methyl formate to methanol as part of an alternative two-step methanol synthesis route, is also of particular interest. Catalysts for ester hydrogenolysis are usually copper-based. Skeletal copper catalysts are often very active but may also exhibit significant deactivation. In a recent study of the gas phase hydrogenolysis of methyl formate to methanol almost half the initial activity was lost in 2.5 hours. However, deactivation was significantly less with 1.6 wt% Cr_2O_3 present. The aim of the present work was to determine the optimum level of chromia to minimise deactivation in this system while retaining initial activity. The deactivation kinetics for unpromoted and promoted catalysts are also reported.