The budding period of industrial catalysts
The beginning of industrial-scale production of catalytic technology
The history of the development of the catalyst industry is closely related to the development and evolution of industrial catalytic processes.
In 1740, the British doctor J. Ward built a factory near London that burned sulfur and saltpeter to produce sulfuric acid. Then, in 1746, the British J. Roebuck built a lead chamber reactor. The oxidation produced by the saltpeter during the production process Nitrogen is actually a gaseous catalyst, which was the beginning of industrial-scale production using catalytic technology.
Generation of the first industrial catalyst
Platinum catalyst
In 1831, P. Phillips obtained a British patent for the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide on platinum. In the 1860s, the Deakin process was developed, which uses copper chloride as a catalyst to oxidize hydrogen chloride to produce chlorine. In 1875, the German E. Jacobs established the first contact method device for the production of fuming sulfuric acid in Kreuznach and manufactured the required platinum catalyst. This was a pioneer of solid industrial catalysts. Platinum was the first industrial catalyst and is still the catalytically active component in many important industrial catalysts.
In the 19th century, the catalyst industry had few product varieties and all relied on manual workshop production methods. Due to the important role of catalysts in chemical production, the methods for making industrial catalysts have been considered a secret since their inception.
The foundation period of industrial catalysts
During this period, a series of important metal catalysts were produced, the catalytic active components expanded from metals to oxides, and the scale of use of liquid acid catalysts expanded.
Basic technology of industrial catalysts
Manufacturers began to use more complex formulas to develop and improve catalysts, and used the principle that high dispersion can improve catalytic activity to design relevant manufacturing technologies, such as precipitation, impregnation, hot melting, leaching, etc. Become the basic technology in the modern catalyst industry.
Diatomaceous earth carrier
The role and selection of catalyst carriers have also received attention. The selected carriers include diatomaceous earth, pumice, silica gel, alumina, etc.
In order to adapt to the requirements of large fixed bed reactors, shaping technology has emerged in the production process, and strip and ingot catalysts have been put into use.
During this period, there was a large scale of production, but the varieties were relatively single. In addition to self-produced and self-used, some widely used catalysts have entered the market as commodities. At the same time, the development of industrial practice promoted the progress of catalytic theory.
In 1925, H.S. Taylor proposed the active center theory, which played an important role in the development of future manufacturing technology.
Metal Catalyst
➤➤➤ At the beginning of the 20th century, factories using nickel as a catalyst to hydrogenate grease to produce hardened oil were established in the United Kingdom and Germany. In 1913, the German Baden Aniline Soda Ash Company used magnetite as raw material and heated it through method and add additives to produce iron-based ammonia synthesis catalysts.
➤➤➤ In 1923, F. Fisher succeeded in hydrogenating carbon monoxide to produce hydrocarbons using cobalt as a catalyst.
➤➤➤ In 1925, American M. Rainey obtained the patent for manufacturing skeleton nickel catalyst and put it into production. This is a skeleton nickel obtained by leaching silicon from Ni-Si alloy with alkali.
➤➤➤ In 1926, Farben used iron, tin, molybdenum and other metals as catalysts to produce liquid fuel from coal and tar through high-pressure hydrogenation and liquefaction. This method was called the Burgess process.
Iron catalyst
This stage laid the basic technology for manufacturing metal catalysts, including the reduction technology of transition metal oxides and salts and the partial extraction technology of alloys. The material of the catalyst…Period of change
During this stage, high-efficiency complex catalysts came out one after another; low-pressure operating catalysts were developed for energy saving; the shapes of solid catalysts became increasingly diversified; new molecular sieve catalysts appeared; large-scale production of environmentally friendly catalysts began; Biocatalysts are receiving attention.
Highly efficient complex catalyst
Rhodium catalyst
After platinum and palladium, about a century later, rhodium has become another precious metal element used in the catalyst industry. In the development of carbon-chemistry, rhodium catalysts will be of great significance.
Another major development in complex catalysts is the highly efficient olefin polymerization catalyst developed in the 1970s. This is a supported complex catalyst formed by a titanium tetrachloride-aluminum alkyl system supported on a magnesium chloride carrier. It is extremely efficient. , One gram of titanium can produce tens to nearly one million grams of polymer, so there is no need to separate the catalyst from the product, which can save energy consumption in the production process.
Industrial applications of solid catalysts
Honeycomb wire carrier
In order to achieve the goals of increasing production load and saving energy, solid catalyst shapes have become increasingly diversified since the 1970s, such as trilobal and four-lobed catalysts used in hydrorefining, and honeycomb catalysts used for automobile exhaust purification. , as well as spherical and spoke-shaped catalysts for ammonia synthesis. There are also some new designs for the distribution of catalytically active components in the catalyst, such as the palladium/alumina catalyst used in the first-stage hydrorefining of pyrolysis gasoline, so that the active components are concentrated in the near-surface layer.
Industrial applications of molecular sieve catalysts
ZSM-5 molecular sieve catalyst
In the late 1970s, the ZSM-5 molecular sieve catalyst was developed for the alkylation of benzene to ethylbenzene, replacing the previous aluminum trichloride. In the early 1980s, the ZSM-5 molecular sieve catalyst for synthesizing gasoline from methanol was developed. In the development of resources and carbon-chemistry, molecular sieve catalysts will play an important role.
Industrial applications of environmental protection catalysts
At present, environmentally friendly catalysts, chemical catalysts (including catalysts used in the production processes of synthetic materials, organic synthesis, and synthetic ammonia) and petroleum refining catalysts are listed as three major fields in the catalyst industry.
Industrial Applications of Biocatalysts There is an increase in the number of processes using biochemical methods in the chemical industry. After the 1970s, a variety of immobilized enzymes for large-scale application were produced. The development of biocatalysts will cause dramatic changes in chemical industry production.
