Structured Raney Nickel Catalysts for Liquid-Phase Hydrogenation

Structured catalysts consisting of metal sheets on which Raney nickel was deposited by the thermal spraying method were tested for the liquid-phase hydrogenation of glucose to sorbitol and 2-nitrotoluene to 2-methylaniline, used as model reactions. Catalytic tests performed in a bench-scale (1 L) reactor showed that the catalytic activity of Raney Ni sheets is significantly higher than the one of the pellets used for fixed-bed applications, but lower than the activity of the powder catalyst used in slurry mode. The activity could be significantly improved when applying a two-phase co-current flow through a monolith. In this case, the activity was superior to the one obtained with the slurry catalyst. These results confirm the potential of Raney Ni monoliths as structured catalysts.