Homogeneous Catalyst Formulations for Methanol Production
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
~™ llll III II II II III 1 1 III II I II (19) J European Patent Office Office europeen des brevets (11) EP 0 479 780 B1 (12) EUROPEAN PATENT SPECIFICATION (45) Date of publicationation and mention (51) Int. CI.6: B01 J 31/20, C07C 27/06 of the grant of the patent: 14.08.1996 Bulletin 1996/33 (86) International application number: PCT/US89/02828 (21) Application number: 89908081.6 (87) International publication number: (22) Date of filing: 30.06.1989 WO 91/00144 (10.01.1991 Gazette 1991/02) (54) HOMOGENEOUS CATALYST FORMULATIONS FOR METHANOL PRODUCTION HOMOGENE KATALYSATORFORMULIERUNG ZUR METHANOLHERSTELLUNG COMPOSITIONS CATALYTIQUES HOMOGENES POUR LA PRODUCTION DE METHANOL (84) Designated Contracting States: (74) Representative: Beresford, Keith Denis Lewis et GB al BERESFORD & Co. (43) Date of publication of application: 2-5 Warwick Court 15.04.1992 Bulletin 1992/16 High Holborn London WC1 R 5DJ (GB) (73) Proprietor: ASSOCIATED UNIVERSITIES, INC. Long Island, New York 11973 (US) (56) References cited: US-A- 4 476 334 US-A- 4 619 946 (72) Inventors: US-A- 4 623 634 US-A- 4 670 472 • MAHAJAN, Devinder US-A- 4 731 386 US-A- 4 935 395 Port Jefferson, NY 11776 (US) • SAPIENZA, Richard, Sabino • DATABASE WPIL, accession no. 82-10971 E [06], Shoreham, NY 11786 (US) Derwent Publications Ltd, London, GB; & JP-A- • SLEGEIR, William, Anthony 56 169 634 (MITSUI PETROCHEM. IND. K.K.) 26- Hampton Bays, NY 11946 (US) 12- 1981 • O'HARE, Thomas, Edward Northport, NY 1 1 768-1 1 60 (US) CO o CO r»- Note: Within nine months from the publication of the mention of the grant of the European patent, any person may give notice to the European Patent Office of opposition to the European patent granted. Notice of opposition shall be filed in o a written reasoned statement. It shall not be deemed to have been filed until the opposition fee has been paid. (Art. Q_ 99(1) European Patent Convention). LU Printed by Rank Xerox (UK) Business Services 2.13.0/3.4 EP 0 479 780 B1 Description BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5 This invention relates to novel catalyst formulations for methanol production. It also relates to methods for making the catalysts and to methods of making methanol using the catalysts. These new catalyst formulations have a number of features: liquid phase performance, low temperature, low pres- sure performance, high activity, and high selectivity, which permits gas conversions in one pass through greater than 90%, and under optimum conditions gas conversions of about 97%. Since the preferred catalyst system is a liquid 10 phase system, it permits the reaction between carbon monoxide and hydrogen to form methanol, which is an exother- mic reaction, to proceed at fully isothermal conditions. In contrast, the traditional pelleted, solid catalysts used in meth- anol production create hot spots in the reactor which prevent the process from operating efficiently. Further, because the homogeneous catalyst is in solution, reaction heat removal can be decoupled from kinetics. Thus, unlike existing processes, with the instant process optimum performance, both chemically and thermally, can be built into the produc- 15 tion system separately, with the components of the production system designed to optimize heat removal and kinetics. The homogeneous catalyst formulation of the present invention overcomes other disadvantages of conventional, solid-phase, methanol synthesis catalysts. Typically, conventional processes require high temperatures (250°C) and high pressure (527 KPa; 765 psi) and are limited by low equilibrium conversion (60%). Using the catalysts of the present invention, methanol production can be conducted at low temperatures and pressure with a high equilibrium conversion. 20 Further, conventional type catalysts, such as pellet type catalysts, usually exhibit a gas conversion rate of about 1 6- 30% per pass, necessitating the re-cycling of the feed gas in order to operate the production system at an economically acceptable efficiency. Then, although partial oxidation of natural gas yields an ideal methanol feed gas, partial oxidation cannot be used to produce the feed gas for conventional catalyst systems because such systems require a feed gas with very low levels of inert gases, especially nitrogen. Inerts such as nitrogen that build up in the recycle stream must 25 be kept low for process efficiency. To produce feed gases with low levels of inerts, the partial oxidation would have to be carried out using oxygen and this approach renders this method of feed gas preparation economically unfeasible. The instant catalyst system makes it possible to take advantage of partial oxidation production of the synthesis feed gas because the high conversion eliminates the need for a recycle stream and thereby permits use of air rather than oxy- gen, saving the large costs for oxygen generation. A further improvement that results from the high efficiency of the 30 process that permits one pass through operation is that the atmospheric nitrogen that enters the system through the air partial oxidation step leaves the reactor at reaction pressure and can be expanded to provide energy, for example for air compression. The present invention provides a catalyst, preferably a homogeneous catalyst that permits the production of meth- anol from a synthesis gas feed gas containing inert gases, at low temperatures and pressures and at high gas conver- 35 sion rates. This represents a significant improvement in reaction conditions and process efficiency over the conventional methanol catalysts. Japanese Patent Publication No 63-169634 discloses a method of synthesising an oxygen containing organic com- pound such as methanol or ethylene glycol by reacting carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a mickel com- pound and alkali metal alkoxide in the liquid phase at less than 200°C. However, the solvent system is required to be 40 methanol free, and the reaction products include methyl formate and dimethyl ether as well as methanol. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The instant invention covers a novel catalyst which can be used for the synthesis of methanol from carbon monox- 45 ide and hydrogen. This catalyst is defined in claim 1 . It is easily prepared; it exhibits superior activity when compared to conventional methanol catalysts, it permits the use of lower temperatures and pressures in the reactor, it permits the use of a feed gas that contains inert gases in addition to the CO and H2, and it produces high gas conversion rates. The homogeneous catalyst of the present invention is comprised of two components dissolved in methanol or a methanol co-solvent mixture. The two components are a transition metal carbonyl complex and an alkoxide. The tran- 50 sition metal is selected from the group consisting of copper, nickel, Palladium, cobalt, ruthenium, iron, molybdenum and mixtures of these metals. The preferred transition metal is nickel. This two component catalyst is in a solution of methanol, which is available from the methanol product in the reac- tor. A co-solvent may also be employed, preferably an organic oxygen containing co-solvent that Is miscible with meth- anol. Suitable co-solvents include saturated hydrocarbons, amine based solvents, ethers, esters, alkyl polyethers and 55 hydroxyalkylpolyethers in which the carbon chain is interrupted by one or more oxy groups, and alcohols. The preferred co-solvents are tetrahydrofuran, 2-ethyltetrahydrofuran, iso-octane, toluene, p-dioxane, t-amyl alcohol, t-butyl alcohol, polyalcohols, glycol derivatives such as polyethylene glycol and triglyme, the dimethyl ether of resorcinol, dimethyl oxalate, and crown ethers. 2 EP 0 479 780 B1 Because the homogeneous catalyst of the present invention possesses such high activity, the catalyzed production of methanol from carbon monoxide and hydrogen can be carried out under moderate conditions. The catalyst operates effectively at temperatures in the range of from 20°C to 150°C, with temperatures in the range of 100-150°C being pre- ferred. Likewise the pressure prevailing in the reactor can be as low as 34.4 KPa (50 psi) and as high as 207 KPa (300 5 psi) with the preferred pressure being in the range of 68.9-103.4 KPa (100-150 psi) The feed gas for the production of methanol using the present catalyst is preferably synthesis gas produced by the ai partial oxidation of natural gas. This feed gas may be diluted with inert gases such as nitrogen and methane. The catalyst can tolerate minor quantities of hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide and water but it is preferred to use an approx- imately anhydrous, carbon dioxid-free synthesis gas. 10 The homogeneous catalyst of the present invention is the product of the reaction between the two materials used to prepare the catalyst, the transition metal material and the alkoxide material. The transition metal material is a material capable of generating the corresponding transition metal carbonyl in a methanol solution. The transition metal material may be the metal carbonyl or a carbonyl precursor. As used herein, the term carbonyl precursor means a material which, when dissolved in methanol, forms the transition metal carbonyl in situ. The transition metal carbonyl or transi- 15 tion metal carbonyl precursor may be used in the preparation of the instant catalyst in its mononuclear form or in cluster form. With the preferred transition metal, nickel, any form of nickel carbonyl, such as nickel tetracarbonyl, Ni(CO)4, or any carbonyl precursor capable of generating the carbonyl nickelate in the methanol solution can be used in the prep- aration of the homogeneous catalyst. It is also possible to use a bi-metallic system in which a mixture of two transition metal carbonyls, or carbonyl precursors, is used, for instance nickel carbonyl and molybdenum carbonyl. In another 20 aspect of using a bi-metallic system; a transition metal carbonyl or carbonyl precursor, for instance nickel tetracarbonyl, is used, together with the alkoxide contributing material, such as potassium methoxide, and in addition a transition metal alkoxide is also used, such as copper methoxide.