Process for producing ethanol using hydrogenation catalysts

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9381500-B2
Application number	US-201414487581-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 16, 2014
Priority date	Jan 6, 2012
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

The present invention relates to catalysts, to processes for making catalysts and to chemical processes employing such catalysts. The catalysts are preferably used for converting acetic acid to ethanol. The catalyst comprises a precious metal and one or more active metals on a modified support. The modified support may comprise cobalt tungstate.

First claim

We claim:

1. A process for producing for producing ethanol, comprising contacting a feed stream comprising acetic acid, and/or ethyl acetate, and hydrogen in a reactor at an elevated temperature in the presence of a catalyst under conditions effective to form ethanol, wherein the catalyst comprises a precious metal and one or more active metals on a modified support, wherein the modified support comprises: (i) support material; (ii) a support modifier comprising an oxide of tungsten, molybdenum or vanadium in an amount from 0.1 to 50 wt. %, and (iii) at least one of the one or more active metals.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the precious metal is selected from the group consisting of rhodium, rhenium, ruthenium, platinum, palladium, osmium, iridium and gold.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the precious metal is selected from the group consisting of palladium, platinum, and rhodium.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the precious metal is present in an amount from 0.05 to 10 wt. %.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the support modifier is present in an amount from 0.1 wt. % to 40 wt. %.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more active metals are selected from the group consisting of copper, iron, cobalt, vanadium, nickel, titanium, zinc, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, tin, lanthanum, cerium, and manganese.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more active metals are selected from the group consisting of copper, iron, cobalt, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten and tin.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the one or more active metals are present in an amount from 0.1 to 15 wt. %.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the support modifier comprises tin and is free of tin tungstate.

10. The process of claim 1 , wherein the support material is selected from the group consisting of silica, alumina, titania, silica/alumina, pyrogenic silica, high purity silica, zirconia, carbon, zeolites and mixtures thereof.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein the feed stream further comprises ethyl acetate in an amount greater than 5 wt. %.

Assignees

• Celanese Int Corp

Inventors

• Zhou Zhenhua
• Johnston Victor J
• Kumar Dheeraj
• Tu Xiaoyan
• Weiner Heiko
• Wollrab Radmila

Classifications

• B01J23/898

  with vanadium, tantalum, niobium or polonium · CPC title

• C07C29/149

  with hydrogen or hydrogen-containing gases · CPC title

• B01J23/70

  of the iron group metals or copper · CPC title

• B01J23/96

  of catalysts comprising metals, oxides or hydroxides of the noble metals · CPC title

• B01J23/10

  of rare earths · CPC title