A Novel NiCl2-CuCl2/HMOR Catalyst for Direct Vapor-Phase Carbonylation of Methanol

Direct vapor-phase methanol carbonylation, without any methyl iodide in the feed as a promoter, was carried out over NiCl2-CuCl2/HMOR catalysts. The results showed that NiCl2-CuCl2/HMOR catalysts exhibited high activity for methanol carbonylation. The optimum component of the composite catalyst was 5wt% NiCl2 and 15wt% CuCl2. In addition, the effects of reaction pressure and temperature on catalytic performance of 5%NiCl2-15%CuCl2/HMOR catalyst were investigated. It was revealed that methanol conversion of 84.2% and carbonylation selectivity of 73.5% could be obtained under the optimum reaction conditions of P=1.5MPa and T=623K.