Influence of the support material on the activity and selectivity of Ru-Sn-B catalysts for the selective hydrogenation of methyl oleate

MARIA A. SÁNCHEZ; VANINA A. MAZZIERI; MARIA A. VICERICH; CARLOS R. VERA; CARLOS L. PIECK

INDUSTRIAL & ENGINEERING CHEMICAL RESEARCH

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Lugar: Washington; Año: 2015 vol. 2015 p. 6845 - 6854

0888-5885

The influence of the kind of support (Al2O3, SiO2 and TiO2) on the catalytic activity and selectivity of Ru-Sn-B catalysts for the hydrogenation of methyl oleate to oleyl alcohol was studied. The results show that the most active and selective catalyst for producing oleyl alcohol is Ru(1%)-Sn(2%)-B/Al2O3. This was attributed to the catalyst having a favorable surface Sn/Ru ratio (=2). The SiO2-supported Ru-Sn-B catalyst had a good activity and hydrogenated both C=C double bonds and the C=O group, thus producing stearyl alcohol with a high yield. It however deactivated to a great extent, its final conversion being lower than that of the bimetallic catalysts supported on Al2O3 and TiO2. The TiO2 supported catalyst had a high selectivity to saturated methyl esters because it hydrogenated C=C double bonds but had little activity for hydrogenation of the C=O group.