Highly Selective Cu-Modified Ni/SiO2–Al2O3 Catalysts for the Conversion of Maleic Anhydride to γ-Butyrolactone in Gas Phase

Abstract

The gas phase hydrogenation of maleic anhydride (MA) to succinic anhydride (SA) and the subsequent hydrogenolysis to c-butyrolactone (GBL) was studied on SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 -supported Ni catalysts modified with Cu and prepared by incipient wetness impregnation (Ni-I, CuNi-I) and coprecipitation-deposition (CuNi-PD) methods. The samples were characterized by N 2 adsorption at -196°C, X-ray diffraction, temperature-programmed reduction, transmission electron microscopy and H 2 chemisorption. Catalytic tests were performed between 170 and 220°C at atmospheric pressure in a fixed bed reactor. Crystalline NiO along with a Ni 2? phase strongly interacting with the support was observed in the oxide precursors. The extent of the strongly interacting Ni 2? phase diminishes according to the following pattern: CuNi-PD [ CuNi-I [ Ni-I, along with a proportional rise of the NiO phase. The proportion of small to large metal particles, formed after reduction, followed the same pattern as that observed for the extent of Ni 2? phase. All catalysts were very active in the MA hydrogenation to SA, but displayed distinct performances with respect to the subsequent SA hydrogenolysis. Hydrogenolytic activity and GBL yield increased following the same pattern as that obtained for the extent of Ni 2? phase. In addition, the effect of raising temperature on hydrogenolytic activity was more important in the case of Ni-I and CuNi-I than for CuNi-PD. Furthermore, CuNi-PD was more selective to GBL than CuNi-I. These results showed that there is an important effect of Cu addition and preparation method on both the structure and catalytic performance of the metal Ni phase.

Ni/Al 2 O 3 catalysts derived from spinel NiAl 2 O 4 for low-temperature hydrogenation of maleic anhydride to succinic anhydride

“…This compared with a nearly 90% SA yield at 120 °C in the present work. Previous work suggested that small Ni 0 particle sizes were responsible for high catalytic activity, which may explain the present results for the spinel-derived catalysts with highly dispersed, small Ni 0 species [21].…”

“…The main disadvantages of the supported Ni catalysts include high Ni-loading, and deactivation of the catalyst at high reaction temperatures [10,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. Moreover, Bertone et al [21] investigated the Cu-modified Ni/SiO2-Al2O3 catalysts and found that the Ni 0 active species exhibited high catalytic activity, but they observed deactivation during 3 h of testing. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop novel Ni-based catalytic systems with enhanced activity and stability for the hydrogenation of MA at low temperatures.…”

Comprehensive investigation of succinic acid production by Actinobacillus succinogenes: a promising native succinic acid producer

“…10 In particular, paraffin oxidation is the original method to produce succinic acid; a calcium or manganese catalyst is employed, and the paraffin is completely converted to a mixture of dicarboxylic acid. 11 Subsequently, distillation, crystallization, and drying are applied to purify the succinic acid. Although this process is well established, the yield and purity of succinic acid are relatively low.…”

Biofilm-Integrated Glycosylated Membrane for Biosuccinic Acid Production

“…Succinic acid is considered to be one of the most important platform chemicals for high value-added derivatives production, , which has been widely used in chemicals, degradable plastics, medicine, food, and other fields. , Nowadays, succinic acid is mainly produced by chemical methods, such as paraffin oxidation, catalytic hydrogenation, and electrolytic reduction. − Although these chemical methods have been developed to be a relatively mature tool in industry, these chemical methods usually consume nonrenewable resources and cause severe environmental pollution . Instead, microbial fermentation techniques show many merits, such as renewable substrate for production and mild and green reaction conditions. , Thus, the potential fermentation technique has attracted much more attention for succinic acid production .…”