Spherical catalyst support material and a process for producing it
Description
The invention relates to a spherical catalyst support material r a process for producing the spherical catalyst support material and its use as oxychlorination catalyst.
Catalyst support material comprising or consisting of activated aluminium oxide is known.
DE 21 25 625 discloses a process for preparing pseudoboehmite-like alumina which, owing to its large surface area, the high pore volume and the pore size, is suitable as support material for catalysts from bauxite. A disadvantage of this production process is that the product formed is not spherical.
It is likewise known that highly pure alumina hydrates can be prepared by hydrolysis of aluminium alkoxides, with metallic aluminium being used for preparing the alkoxides . • This material can be converted into a spherical form by spray drying.
It is an object of the invention to provide a catalyst support material based on alumina hydrate (Al203 • H20) which has a regular spherical structure starting from bauxite .
According to the invention, a suspension of alumina hydrate, hydrotalcite, water and mineral acid is firstly prepared by intensive stirring in order to' produce the support material .
For the purposes of the invention, alumina hydrate is an aluminium oxide obtained from bauxite, e.g. by dissolution of alumina trihydrate, e.g. hydrargillite,
and reprecipitation with acids, as described in the LaRoche process in DE-A 21 25 625.
In one embodiment, Versal 700 from LaRoche was used as alumina hydrate .
For the purposes of the invention, hydrotalcite is a magnesium-aluminium double compound in which the proportions of magnesium and aluminium oxides, hydroxides and/or carbonates can fluctuate . The hydrotalcite used according to the invention is a sparingly soluble compound.
In one embodiment of the invention, a hydrotalcite from LaRoche was used.
Physical data of the hydrotalcite:
LOI (1000°C) 43.2% Specific surface area 228 m2/g
(calcined at 550°C, 1 hour)
The proportion of hydrotalcite in the suspension is, based on the total solids content, from 1 to 25% by weight, preferably from 1 to 10% by weight, in particular from 1.3 to 3% by weight.
As mineral acid, it is possible to use nitric acid, sulfuric acid or hydrochloric acid, but preference is given to using nitric acid since it leaves behind no interfering decomposition products .
The suspension of alumina hydrate, hydrotalcite, water and mineral acid is spray dried and heat treated in a manner known per se .
To obtain a narrow particle size distribution of the dried support material, it is advantageous to subject the mixture to milling prior to spray drying. This
increases the proportion of fine particles in the mixture .
In one embodiment of the invention, a bead mill or a colloid mill was used.
Spray drying is carried out in a manner known per se .
The temperature of the gas, preferably hot air, used for drying and introduced into the dryer is from 500 to 600°C. The temperature of the vapour leaving the dryer is from 100 to 170°C.
The ' spherical particles formed are after-dried for a period of about 18 hours, e.g. in a drying oven at 150°C, and subsequently heat treated at about 600°C for a period of about 6 hours .
The spherical support material produced in this way has an average pore volume after calcination of from 0.5 to 0.8 ml/g, in particular from 0.5 to 0.6 ml/g.
A specific surface area of from 150 to 200 m2/g, in particular from 150 to 180 m2/g, was measured.
The particle size of the support material has the following distribution:
> 90 μ 0 - 10% by weight
60 - 90 μ 15 - 25% by weight
45 - 60 μ 15 -40% by weight
20 - 45 μ 15 -40% by weight < 20 μ 0 - 6% by weight.
The surface areas and the pore volume were determined by the standard BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) method using nitrogen.
The spherical material produced according to the invention is particularly suitable as catalyst support for oxychlorination catalysts.
It has surprisingly been found that the addition of hydrotalcite ensures that spherical particles are formed. Furthermore, the properties of the resulting catalyst can be controlled or influenced by the amount of hydrotalcite in the support material . To produced a catalyst, the spherical material is .impregnated with the catalytically active metal compounds. Impregnation of the support material is carried out in a manner known per se .
In a preferred embodiment, impregnation of the support material is carried out by a method analogous to those described in EP-0 657 212 and EP-0 494 474.
In one embodiment, the support material is impregnated with a solution of the catalytically active compounds by dissolving, for example, copper, magnesium and alkali metal compounds, in particular lithium, sodium or potassium compounds and/or mixtures thereof, preferably the corresponding halides, in water at about 70 °C and mixing the support material with the warm solution in a kneader. After kneading, the supported catalyst is dried at about 170 °C for a period of about 48 hours .
The composition of the catalytically active compounds is chosen so that the supported catalyst has a copper content of from 30 to 90 g/kg (based on the total weight) and the other metal salts, namely the metal salts applied by impregnation, are present in an atom ratio Cu:Mg:Li:K and/or sodium of 1:0.1-1.5:0.01-1.0:0.001-0.8.
In a preferred embodiment, the supported catalyst applied by impregnation contains:
62 g/kg of copper
17 g/kg of magnesium
1.7 g/kg of lithium
12 g/kg of potassium.
The pore volume of this preferred supported catalyst is 0.24 cm2/g and the specific surface area (BET) is 113 m2/g.
It has surprisingly been found that the supported catalysts have a high abrasion resistance and a low erosive action. The catalyst particles themselves have a low tendency to stick together. Furthermore, it has been observed that the catalyst particles form virtually no caked material on the walls of the reactor or on the heat exchanger tubes. In addition, it has been found that varying the hydrotalcite content of the support material makes it possible to control the activity and selectivity of the catalyst. Thus, the selectivity of the catalyst can be increased by increasing the hydrotalcite content, but this simul- taneously reduces its activity. When used, for example, as oxychlorination catalyst for converting ethylene into dichloroethane, the catalyst displays a high selectivity and activity for the formation of 1,2- dichloroethane and a small tendency to form C02 when the proportion of hydrotalcite is about 10% by weight.
It has been found that the support material remains stable under oxychlorination conditions.
The invention is illustrated but not restricted by the following examples.
Examples
Example 1 :
Production of the support material
20 kg of aluminium oxide monohydrate (Versal 700, LaRoche) , 5 kg of hydrotalcite (HTC, LaRoche) and
2.1 kg of nitric acid were admixed with 75 kg of water and mixed .intensively by stirring. The slurry formed was milled in a bead mill to increase the proportion of fine particles and subsequently spray dried.
Spray drying condi ions:
Nozzle: Schlick 121
Nozzle orifice: 0.35 mm
Spray angle: 15°
Pressure: 15 bar
T mperature of drying gas:
Inlet: 530°C
Outlet: 100°C
The spherical particles were after-dried at 150°C in a drying oven for 18 hours and subsequently heat treated at 600°C for 6 hours.
Examples 2 and 3 :
Production of the support material
Support material was produced by a method analogous to Example 1 but with the amount of starting materials being varied.
Table 1 : Support production
Table 2 : Support properties
Example 4 ;
Production of the catalyst
4,500 g of support material from Example 1, 2 or 3 was in each case placed in a kneader. In a separate vessel,
1,038.40 g of CuCl2-2H20 (95 pure)
871.59 g of MgCl2-6H20
65.47 g of LiCl
142.33 g of KC1
850 g of H20
were mixed with one another and dissolved at 70°C.
The mixture was intensively kneaded and the free- flowing powder was then dried at 170 °C in a drying oven for 48 hours.
The catalyst is strongly hydroscopic and therefore has to be stored in a closed container.
Example 5 :
Oxychlorination
To demonstrate the catalytic activity of the supported catalyst, the oxychlorination of ethylene.to form 1,2- dichloroethane was carried out in a small laboratory reactor using the catalysts produced as described in Example 4.
Amount of catalyst: 565 ml
Temperature : 245 °C
Pressure : 5 . 8 atmospheres
Residence time: 10 seconds
Molar ratio: C2H4/2HC1 = 1 . 1- Molar ratio: C2H4/02 is controlled so that
1% by volume of 02 is always present in the off -gas .
Result :
Catalyst containing support as described in Example 2
Selectivity: 97.7 mol?
HC1 conversion: 99.8%