1991 Volume 24 Issue 5 Pages 604-609
A mixed oxide catalyst was prepared from a binary hydrogen storage alloy, Mg2Cu, and its activity and selectivity were compared with those of conventional CuCrO catalyst. The catalyst’s activity was stable for the synthesis of C18 alcohol by gas-phase hydrogenolysis of methyl oleate in a continuous-flow reactor at 553 K under atmospheric pressure. Considerable amounts of unsaturated alcohol were produced together with saturated alcohol. From a kinetic study the rate equation was formulated for each alcohol. From XRD analysis, active sites are thought to be copper species on MgO support.