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Integration of methanation into the hydrogenation process of benzoic acid
Author(s) -
Zong Baoning,
Zhang Xiaoxin,
Qiao Minghua
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.11679
Subject(s) - benzoic acid , methanation , cyclohexanecarboxylic acid , catalysis , chemistry , decarboxylation , methanol , process engineering , organic chemistry , chemical engineering , materials science , engineering
The traditional industrial process for hydrogenation of benzoic acid to cyclohexanecarboxylic acid (CCA) has drawbacks of low‐activity and fast deactivation of the Pd/C catalyst due to the poisoning of CO arising from the decarboxylation of CCA. A novel rapidly quenched skeletal NiCrFe promoter (RQ NiCrFe) is developed for the methanation of CO to harmless CH 4 . Evaluations in bench‐scale autoclave and in traditional industrial equipment verified that RQ NiCrFe was very effective in promoting the activity of the Pd/C catalyst in the hydrogenation of benzoic acid. In order to solve the catalyst recycle and separation problem introduced by RQ NiCrFe, the industrial process was modified by incorporating a hydraulic cyclone and a magnetic separator to the separation unit. The modified process showed merits of lower costs of catalyst and operation, higher productivity, and better product purity than the traditional process. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2009