The development of nonchromium catalyst for fatty alcohol production

Abstract

AbstractFatty alcohols are obtained by hydrogenation of fatty acid methyl esters derived from coconut oil and palm kernel oil. Cu−Cr has been widely used as a hydrogenation catalyst. We have developed a new environment‐friendly catalyst that could substitute for the conventional Cu−Cr catalyst, preventing the release of toxic hexavalent Cr. Here we report the development of Cr‐free, Cu−Fe−Al oxide catalyst. We found that iron has a strong promoting effect nearly equivalent to that of Cr and that the addition of Al significantly improved the reuse property (durability) through a study of trivalent metal addition to Cu. Powder X‐ray diffraction analysis of the used catalyst revealed that the Al addition suppressed the transformation of the CuFe2O4 component (Cu−Fe spinel) to α‐Fe. It was concluded that the stabilization of CuFe2O4 during reduction improved the catalyst durability. A plant‐scale experiment confirmed that the Cu−Fe−Al oxide catalyst performs as well as the conventional Cu−Cr catalyst.