CATALYST FOR THE SYNTHESIS OF ALCOHOL MIXTURES CONTAINING METHANOL AND HIGHER ALCOHOLS

摘要

A process for the synthesis of an alcohol mixture, including methanol and higher alcohols of fuel quality involves passing a synthesis gas mixture of carbon oxides and hydrogen at a temperature of about 250-400.degree.C and a pressure in the range of from about 80-150 bar over a special catalyst. The catalyst consists of the oxides of copper and zinc in intimate association with each other and a promotional amount of a compound selected from the group consisting of chromium, cerium, lanthanum, manganese, thorium and alkali metals. The catalyst can be made by coprecipitation of two or more of the constituents from a solution of soluble salts to produce an insoluble precipitate, followed by calcination of the insoluble salts to the oxides at temperatures in the range of 350 to 450.degree.C. Alternately, the catalytically active oxides can be obtained by the thermal decomposition of soluble salts from ammine complexed to produce intimately associated oxides. The catalytically active oxides are tableted and can be further impregnated in one or more steps by one or more of the promoting metal oxides. The alcohols produced by this process can be used for fuel or can be mixed with gasoline. Due to the higher alcohols the gasoline and alcohol mixture does not undergo phase separation in the presence of small amounts of water. It is also possible to separate the various alcohols by fractionationand use them as starting material for chemical intermediates.