New Catalysts for Coal to Ethylene Glycol

Abstract

Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences has achieved the industrialization of the first generation catalysts for coal to ethylene glycol for the first time in 2009. However, there are still lots of aspects to be improved, such as high noble metal loading and toxic Cr in catalyst of ester hydrogenation. To improve the catalysts, we have done systematic deep research about the nanostructures of catalysts, and revealed facet effect, size effect, synergistic effect, support effect, and so on. A series of catalysts preparation technologies have been developed to achieve the efficient utilization of noble metals. The Pd loadings of dehydrogenation catalyst and CO oxidative coupling catalyst have been dropped from 2.5% to 0.9% and 2.0% to 0.13%, respectively, while the catalytic performances are enhanced greatly. The toxic Cu‐Cr in ester hydrogenation catalyst has been upgraded to green Cu‐Si. The new catalysts for coal to ethylene glycol with advancement have been successfully developed with independent intellectual property rights.