The invention discloses a method for preparing Guerbet
alcohol, which comprises the steps of mixing aliphatic
primary alcohol or secondary
alcohol, KOH and
nickel powder according to the ratio by parts by weight of 160: 2-5: 0.4-0.6, then adding into a reactor, carrying out
condensation reaction at the temperature of 100-270 DEG C under the stirring state and the
nitrogen protection of 0.2MPa-2MPa, terminating the reaction when no water is produced by detection, then cooling a
reaction product to
room temperature, after that, filtering and concentrating, thereby obtaining a Guerbet
alcohol product. As the
condensation reaction is carried out in the high-
pressure reactor under the condition of
nitrogen protection, the method excludes the influences of
oxygen on the reaction, effectively avoids the side reactions of oxidation, the production of acid,
aldehyde and other byproducts of oxidation and the consumption of the
raw material alcohol, the product alcohol and a catalyst, improves the reaction yield and improves the conversion rate by more than 5%. Meanwhile, as the reaction with pressure is carried out, the
boiling point of the
raw material alcohol is increased, and the long-time
reflux reaction is unnecessary, thereby shortening the reaction time by more than 50%, reducing the annual
energy consumption which accounts for 500 tons of standard
coal and having great popularization and utilization prospects.