Hydrogenation of benzene polycarboxylic acids or derivatives to give products useful as plasticizers

摘要

Hydrogenation of benzene polycarboxylic acid(s) (or derivative(s)) with an H2-containing gas uses a catalyst which has a sub-Group VIII metal as active metal, alone or together with a sub-Group I or VII metal, on a carrier which is characterized by having macropores, there being provisos relating to the catalyst when dimethyl terephthalate is being hydrogenated. Hydrogenation of benzene polycarboxylic acid(s) (or derivative(s)) with an H2-containing gas uses a catalyst which has a sub-Group VIII metal as active metal, alone or together with a sub-Group I or VII metal, on a carrier which is characterized by having macropores, there being provisos when dimethyl terephthalate is being hydrogenated such that the following two types of catalysts are excluded : (i) a catalyst with Ru as the active metal, alone or together with a sub-Group I, VII or VIII metal, and which has (a) a carrier of average pore diameter at least 50nm and BET surface area at most 30m<2>/g; (b) an active metal content of 0.01-30 wt.% of total catalyst wt.; and (c) a ratio active metal surface to carrier surface of below 0.05; and/or (ii) a catalyst with Ru as the active metal, alone or together with a sub-Group I, VII or VIII metal in an amount of 0.01-30 wt.% based on total catalyst wt., on a carrier having 10-50% of its pore volume of macropores of diameter 50-10,000nm and 50-90% of mesopores of diameter 2-50nm, the fractions of each type of pore adding up to 100%. An Independent claim is included for 9 novel cyclohexane-1,2-dicarboxylic acid esters.