GB638340A - A process for the production and application of active catalysts containing copper and magnesium oxide - Google Patents

Abstract

Catalysts containing metallic copper and magnesium oxide, suitable for hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions, e.g. conversion of benzene to cyclohexane and methylethyl ketone to secondary butyl alcohol, and for the production of carbon dioxide and hydrogen from carbon monoxide and steam are prepared by precipitating, with alkali, all the copper as a basic copper salt and part of the magnesium as magnesium hydroxide from a solution of the salts of said metals, e.g. the nitrates, maintained during the precipitation at a pH of 7.5 to 9.5, then raising the pH to above 12 by the addition of further alkali to convert all the basic copper salt to copper hydroxide and precipitate the remainder of the magnesium as hydroxide and finally subjecting the precipitate to reduction with hydrogen at a temperature of 300 DEG C. The solution of copper and magnesium salts may also contain other salts, e.g. aluminium salts, and precipitation may be effected in presence of carriers, e.g. pumice, aluminium oxide, kieselguhr or magnesium oxide, carbonate or silicate. Alternatively, the carrier may be mixed with the precipitate after rinsing and drying and a binder, e.g. starch, aluminium stearate, graphite or waterglass incorporated.