Improvement of Properties of Catalyst for Industrial Production of Acrolein from Propylene

Abstract

The catalytic gas-phase oxidation of propylene on a multicomponent Mo-Co-Fe-Bi-K-O catalyst gives up to 85% yield of acrolein and acrylic acid along with undesirable side products formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. Effects of four factors have now been studied with the aim of suppressing of formation of the by-products viz. the effect of potassium content in the catalyst, that of final annealing temperature of the catalyst, and those of addition of other components (tungsten, nickel). It has been found that a change in potassium content in catalyst affects distinctly its activity and also selectivity for products of total oxidation of propylene but does not practically affect the yields of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde. The yields of the said side products decreased with increasing annealing temperature, however, with concomitant considerable decrease in the catalyst activity. Whereas a partial substitution of molybdenum atoms in the catalyst by tungsten atoms is accompanied by an increase in production of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, some catalysts with nickel gave acrolein as the only aldehyde.