Processes for preparing amines and catalysts for use therein

Abstract

Processes for preparing an amine are described which comprise reacting a primary or secondary alcohol, aldehyde and / or ketone with hydrogen and a nitrogen compound selected from the group of ammonia, primary and secondary amines, in the presence of a zirconium dioxide-, copper- and nickel-containing catalyst. The catalytically active composition of the catalyst, before its reduction with hydrogen, comprises oxygen compounds of zirconium, of copper, of nickel, in the range from 1.0 to 5.0% by weight of oxygen compounds of cobalt, calculated as CoO, and in the range from 0.2 to 5.0% by weight of oxygen compounds of sulfur, of phosphorus, of gallium, of lead and / or of antimony, calculated in each case as H2SO4, H3PO4, Ga203, PbO and Sb203 respectively.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12 / 809,657, filed Jun. 21, 2010, which is a national stage application, under 35 U.S.C. §371, of PCT / EP2008 / 067190, filed Dec. 10, 2008, which claims benefit of European Patent Application No. 07150405.4, filed Dec. 21, 2007, and European Patent Application No. 08166382.5, filed Oct. 10, 2008. The contents of each of the references are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth herein.BACKGROUND[0002]The process products find use, inter alia, as intermediates in the preparation of fuel additives (U.S. Pat. No. 3,275,554; DE-A-21 25 039 and DE-A-36 11 230), surfactants, medicaments and crop protectants, hardeners for epoxy resins, catalysts for polyurethanes, intermediates for preparing quaternary ammonium compounds, plasticizers, corrosion inhibitors, synthetic resins, ion exchangers, textile assistants, dyes, vulcanization accelerants and / or emulsifiers.[0...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0021]It was an object of the present invention to improve the economic viability of existing processes for hydrogenating amination of aldehydes or ketones and the amination of alcohols, and to remedy one or more disadvantages of the prior art, especially the abovementioned disadvantages. The intention was to find catalysts which can be prepared industrially in a simple manner and which enable the above-mentioned aminations to be performed with high conversion, high yield, space-time yields (STY), selectivity, catalyst lifetime with simultaneously high mechanical stability of the shaped catalyst body and low “runaway risk”. The catalysts should accordingly have a high activity and have high chemical and mechanical stability under the reaction conditions. Furthermore, the use of the catalysts in corresponding amination processes in which, owing to the chemical structure of the reactants, linear and cyclic process products can result should lead to the linear process product(s) with improved selectivity.

Problems solved by technology

The formation of methane by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide (CO) leads, owing to the large amount of heat of hydrogenation released, to a “runaway risk”, i.e. an uncontrolled temperature rise in the reactor.

Methoxyethanol is toxic, can be removed from morpholine only with difficulty owing to its physical properties and can thus lead to problems with regard to specification and product quality.

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