| abstract |
Prodn. of a shaped Raney metal catalyst for use in a fixed bed comprises: (i) preparing a powder mixt. of catalyst alloy(s) and binder(s), where each alloy comprises at least one catalytically active metal, a leachable alloy component and opt. promoters; (ii) adding moisture and additives, e.g. shaping aids, lubricants, plasticisers and pore formers; (iii) homogenising and shaping the mixt.; (iv) calcining the prod. to obtain a catalyst precursor; (v) activating the precursor by partially or completely leaching out the leachable component; and (vi) washing the finished catalyst. The improvement is that the binder comprises one or more pure catalytic metals and calcination is effected at a temp. below 850 deg.C. Also claimed are: (1) a catalyst obtainable by a process as above; and (2) a catalyst precursor as above where the particles of alloy and catalytic metal (binder) are sintered together to form a mechanically stable shaped prod. with a density of 1.3-5.5 g/cc, a pore vol. of up to 0.5 cc/g and a BET surface area of less than 1m<2>/g, and where the wt. ratio between the catalytic metals and leachable component in the shaped prod. is 30:70 to 75:25. |