PROCESS FOR PREPARATION OF FORMATE ESTERS OR METHANOL AND CATALYST THEREFOR

摘要

A process for preparing formate esters or methanol and a catalyst therefor are provided, which little suffer from lowering in the activity even when the raw material contains CO2, water, or the like, and enable the preparation of the objective compounds at low temperature under low pressure. Specifically, a process for preparing methanol, characterized in that in preparing a formate ester by reacting carbon monoxide with an alcohol in the presence of an alkali metal catalyst and/or an alkaline earth metal catalyst, both a hydrogenolysis catalyst for formate esters and hydrogen are made to coexist additionally in the reaction system to thereby hydrogenate a formed formate ester into methanol.