United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 4,935,556 Pohl Et Al
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United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 4,935,556 Pohl et al. 45 Date of Patent: Jun. 19, 1990 54 ACID-RESISTANT CATALYSTS FOR THE 58) Field of Search ......................................... 568/885 DRECT HYDROGENATION OF FATTY ACDS TO FATTY ALCOHOLS (56) References Cited 75) Inventors: Joachim Pohl, Duesseldorf; U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS 2,109,844 3/1938 Lazier ................................. 568/885 Franz-Josef Carduck, Haan; Gerd Goebel, Erkrath, all of Fed. Rep. of 4,524,225 6/1985 Qualeatti et al. .................... 568/885 Germany 4,804,790 2/1989 Schuett ............................... 568/885 73 Assignee: Henkel Kommanditgesellschaft auf FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS Aktien, Duesseldorf, Fed. Rep. of 1159925 12/1963 Fed. Rep. of Germany ...... 508/885 Germany 8203 1/1976 Japan ................................... 568/885 21 Appl. No.: 356,476 768199 2/1957 United Kingdom ................ 568/885 Primary Examiner-J. E. Evans 22 Filed: May 24, 1989 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Ernest G. Szoke; Wayne C. Related U.S. Application Data Jaeschke; Real J. Grandmaison 62 Division of Ser. No. 162,537, Mar. 1, 1988, Pat. No. 57 ABSTRACT 4,855,273. Process for the production of a new copper (II) chro 30 Foreign Application Priority Data mite spinel catalyst using colloidal silica gel and to its use for the direct fixed-bed hydrogenation of fatty acids Mar. 2, 1987 DE Fed. Rep. of Germany ....... 37O6658 to fatty alcohols of corresponding chain length. 51) Int. Cl.................... CO7C29/136; C07C31/125 52 U.S. C. .................................................... 568/885 22 Claims, No Drawings 4,935,556 1. 2 and/or unsaturated fatty alcohols (cf. for example U.S. ACID-RESISTANT CATALYSTS FOR THE DIRECT Pat. Nos. 3,193,586; 3,173,959; German Pat. Nos. HYDROGENATION OF FATTY ACDS TO FATTY 2,513,377 and 2,613,226). So far as industrial application ALCOHOLS is concerned the above processes have to be evaluated 5 entirely differently according to whether the fatty acid This application is a division of application Ser. No. esters or the free fatty acids are used as starting material 162,537, filed 3/1/88, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,273. for hydrogenation. It is generally known that the signif. icant advantages of fixed-bed catalysis using solid cata BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION lysts do not apply to the processing of a starting mate 1. Field of the Invention 10 rial consisting of or containing free fatty acids. The This invention relates to a new acid-resistant copper corrosive effect of the free fatty acids at high tempera chromite spinel catalyst for the direct hydrogenation of tures and pressures on the solid catalysts which, basi fatty acids to fatty alcohols. cally, have been successfully used in the reduction of 2. Statement of Related Art methyl esters is so great that it has not hitherto been Fatty alcohols, i.e. predominantly linear, monofunc 15 possible to consider any of the above proposals for tional alcohols having chain lengths of B or more car practical application in the reduction of free acids. bon atoms, and their production are described in detail In practice, therefore, the situation is remedied by in the literature, for example, in Ullmanns Encyklopadie initially introducing relatively large quantities of fatty der technischen Chemie, 4th Edition, Vol. II, pages 427 alcohol into the hydrogenation reactor and subse to 445. Preferred starting materials for their production 20 are the fatty acids and fatty acid mixtures occurring in quently adding free fatty acid under hydrogenation natural fats and/or oils which may be converted into conditions. However, this process requires relatively fatty alcohols of corresponding chain length by cata large reactors. It only achieves conversions of 96% lytic hydrogenation. Through the use of the fatty acids whereas processes using fixed-bed catalysts achieve to be reduced in the form of their methyl esters, the 25 conversions of 99% and higher. catalysts in particular are protected against aggressive As discussed above, copper chromite catalysts are attack by the free carboxyl group, so that industrial highly active catalysts for the hydrogenation of fatty processes can be operated for sufficiently long periods acid esters and triglycerides of oils and fats. The direct with satisfactory volume-time yields. Today, therefore, hydrogenation of fatty acids with catalysts of this type the predominant quantity of native fatty alcohols is 30 has not hitherto been possible because copper(II) chro produced from fatty acid methyl esters by a process in mite (CuCr2O4) is not acid-resistant, i.e. is dissolved by which the distilled methyl esters are passed in the liquid the action of the free fatty acid. This applies in particu state, together with a large excess of hydrogen, over lar to the CuO present in the catalyst. fixedly arranged copper-containing mixed oxide cata DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION lysts, such as for example copper/zinc catalysts, at tem 35 peratures above 200 C. and under pressures of from Other than in the operating examples, or where oth about 250 to 300 bar. erwise indicated, all numbers expressing quantities of The copper-mixed oxide catalysts obtained by copre ingredients or reaction conditions used herein are to be cipitation via the wet route are used as particulate cata understood as modified in all instances by the term lysts or extrudates and, before use, are generally re "about'. duced in the plant or installation. They are not acid Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to resistant. Accordingly, it has not hitherto been possible convert copper (11) chromite at high temperatures into in practice to produce native fatty alcohols by direct an acid-resistant spinel form while maintaining as large hydrogenation of the free fatty acids. a specific catalyst surface as possible and the corre It is known from Ullman, loc. cit, that the hydroge 45 sponding pore structure which guarantees high activity nation of free fatty acids to fatty alcohols can be carried and a high volume-time yield. out by the suspension process using copper (II) chro Accordingly, the present invention relates to a pro mite catalysts. However, this method can only be effec cess for the production of an acid-resistant copper chro tively used when the copper (II) chromite catalyst is mite spinel catalyst for the fixed-bed hydrogenation of obtained by decomposition of the copper ammonium 50 fatty acids to fatty alcohols of corresponding chain chromate complex initially obtained and subsequent length, wherein washing with acetic acid. Catalysts prepared in this way (a) silica containing copper (II) chromite (CuCr2O4) are particularly expensive and, in practice, can only be is prepared by dissolving a water soluble copper salt, used for suspension hydrogenation. Acid-washed cop e.9. the nitrate, preferably the nitrate salt, in water, per (II) chromite can only be tabletted with consider 55 optionally in the presence of other water soluble metal able difficulty, if at all, and accordingly cannot be con salts such as barium and manganese, also preferably in verted into abrasion-resistant or mechanically strong the form of their nitrate salts, adding thereto an aqueous extrudates or other shapes. Any attempt to achieve this colloidal solution of SiO2 in a quantity such that from increase in strength by after-annealing weakens the 0.1 to 15%, preferably 0.5 to 15%, and more preferably effect of the catalyst. Attempts to apply acid-washed 60 4.5%, by weight of SiO2 is present, based on the weight copper(II) chromite to catalyst supports, such as silica of the catalyst as a whole. The above salt-SiO2 solution gel or aluminium oxide for example also produces tech is then mixed with an aqueous chromic acid/ammonia nically unuseable catalysts. The support is attacked and solution in amount sufficient to convert all of the copper the catalyst is readily washed away. present to copper chromate, which precipitates out of According to the relevant patent literature, fatty acid 65 the solution and contains the SiO2 intimately admixed esters, more especially fatty acid methyl ester, and free therewith: fatty acids are therefore simultaneously used as starting (b) the copper chromate is washed free of soluble materials for the hydrogenation reaction to saturated anions (e.g. nitrates) with water, dried, and calcined for 4,935,556 3 4. at least 12 hours (e.9. from 12 to 24 hours) at a tempera Thereafter, the agglomerate-containing powder is com ture of at least 750° C. (e.g. from 750 to 1000 C.). pacted into small granulates, for example in a perforated In one embodiment of the present invention, the re roll granulator. The granulates are dried in known man Sulting calcined powder is mixed with from 0.5 to 10% ner to residual moisture contents of from 10 to 15%. by weight of an organic binder, such as for example polyvinyl acetate or methyl methacrylate, and from 0.5 The resulting granulates are sieved and tabletted. to 15% by weight graphite, and the resulting mixture is Before they are used in the direct hydrogenation of granulated and subsequently tabletted; the percentages fatty acids, the catalysts used in the process of the in by weight being based on the weight of the mixture. vention are activated with hydrogen or with a hydro The present invention also relates to the acid-resistant 10 gen-containing gas mixture A gas mixture predomi copper (II) chromite spinel catalyst which has a silica nantly consisting of a nitrogen/hydrogen gas mixture is gel content of from 0.1 to 15% by weight, based on the advantageously used to activate the catalyst masses. As weight of the catalyst as a whole. known from the prior art, such activation may advanta In one particular embodiment of the copper chromite geously be carried out by drying the catalyst masses in spinel catalyst according to the invention, the silica gel 15 a stream of nitrogen at elevated temperature after their content is 4.5% by weight.