GB337409A - Improvements in or relating to the manufacture of oxygenated organic compounds - Google Patents

Abstract

337,409. Dreyfus, H. July 24, 1929. Oxygenated organic compounds such as ethanol, acetaldehyde, acetic acid and their homologues, and esters are prepared from hydrogen and oxides of carbon, or from compounds synthesized therefrom, especially methanol, in the presence or absence of hydrogen and oxides of carbon, using as catalysts iron, nickel or cobalt borates, silicates, phosphates or salts of other oxyacids of phosphorus. The acidic radicle is preferably in excess over the metallic component. The catalysts may be employed in conjunction with copper, or with the catalysts of Specification 337,014, or with metals of the alkali or alkaline earth series, for instance, as double salts. They may be produced by partial neutralization of the acid, or by heating a complex metallo ammonium salt. The mineral anthosiderite, 2Fe2O3.9Sio2 may be employed. Temperatures of 200‹-600‹ C., especially from 250‹-400‹ C., and pressures of 50-500 atmospheres or more may be used. In the modification where methanol is used as the initial material, this may preliminarily be prepared by passing hydrogen and oxides of carbon over a catalyst such as zinc oxide or basic chromate. Compounds capable of yielding methyl alcohol such as methyl formate or acetate, or dimethyl ether may alternatively be employed. Nitrogen, and methane, which may wholly or in part replace the hydrogen, may also be present in the reacting gases. Copper or copper-lined chambers, or chambers of steel containing molybdenum, manganese, cobalt, nickel or the like are conveniently employed.