PROCESS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF ETHYLENE GLYCOL AND/OR GLYCOLLIC ACID ESTERS, AND CATALYST THEREFOR

摘要

In a process for producing ethylene glycol and/or a glycollic acid ester by the vapor phase catalytic hydrogenation of an oxalic acid diester in the presence of a catalyst and hydrogen gas, the improvement wherein the catalyst has the following composition formula CuMokBapOq wherein k, p and q represent gram-atoms of Mo, Ba and O, respectively, per gram-atom of Cu, k is a number of from 0 to 3, p is a number of from 0 to 6, and q is a number determined depending upon the atomic valence and gram-atoms of Cu, Mo and Ba, provided that k and p are not zero at the same time; and the aforesaid catalyst.