Ester hydrogenolysis over promoted Cu/SiO2 catalysts

Conversion of 2,3-butanediol to butenes over bifunctional catalysts in a single reactor

“…It has been reported that dehydration of diols will occur on silica-supported copper catalysts since Cu is a Lewis acid [63]. Hence, Cu is active for both hydrogenation [28][29][30][31][32] and dehydration reactions. Interestingly, it is observed that the conversion of 2,3-butanediol on 9.5%CuO/ZSM-5(23) is 98.95% at 40 min, which is lower than that of the other two catalysts (almost 100% at 40 min) and the control data of HZSM-5(23) as well (see Table 2).…”

“…Copper is interesting for use as the hydrogenation catalyst. Cu-containing catalysts show high activity for vapor-phase hydrogenation reaction particularly the selective hydrogenation of carbon-oxygen bonds; however, copper catalysts are relatively inactive for hydrogenolysis of carbon-carbon bonds [28]. Guo et al [29] investigated hydrogenolysis of glycerol to propanediols over Cu catalysts, and found that c-Al 2 O 3 supported Cu catalysts showed excellent performance (selectivity to propanediol, 96.8%) and successfully suppressed the scission of CAC bonds.…”

Effect of water on Cu/Zn catalyst for hydrogenation of fatty methyl ester to fatty alcohol

“…Normally, copper-containing catalysts are suitable for hydrogenation of esters to alcohols, since they allow for selective hydrogenation of carbon-oxygen bonds and are relatively inactive in carboncarbon hydrogenolysis [9]. Copper on itself, however, is usually not active, sinter-resistant and mechanically stable enough for industrial operation, so promoters are usually added to obtain the desired chemical and physical properties [9].…”

“…Copper on itself, however, is usually not active, sinter-resistant and mechanically stable enough for industrial operation, so promoters are usually added to obtain the desired chemical and physical properties [9]. As early as in 1931, Adkins [10] discovered a copper-chromium (Cu/Cr) catalyst for hydrogenation of ethyl ester.…”

“…Nowadays, however, the catalysts containing chromium are not environmentally benign because of the releasing of environmental hazard Cr 6+ in the process of the Cu/Cr catalyst preparation. Research is therefore focused on the replacement of chromium by zinc [16], manganese [17], iron [18] and other promoters [9,19,20]. Cu/Zn catalyst is the commonly used one in those catalysts.…”