Silver Catalysts for the Partial Oxidation of Alcohols

The review presents an analysis of the current state in the field of partial oxidation of alcohols to carbonyl compounds on Ag catalysts, including the partial oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde, oxidation of ethylene glycol to glyoxal, and oxidation of ethanol to acetaldehyde. For methanol oxidation, conditions for BASF and ICI processes were considered, and the whole chain of transformations from natural gas to formaldehyde was evaluated from the viewpoint of exergy. Recent publications on the kinetics of partial oxidations of alcohols on silver were analyzed, including those that considered the use of a ring-shaped reactor to suppress the homogeneous decomposition stages of formaldehyde, the development of a new approach to process modeling taking into account different degrees of catalyst reactivity, and the creation of a simulator for calculating methanol oxidation based on a neural network using a genetic algorithm. The main stages of process development of partial oxidation of ethylene glycol to glyoxal on Ag catalysts are briefly described. Recent experimental and theoretical studies on the mechanisms of formation of oxygen-containing active sites on the silver surface and their participation in the conversion of alcohols into carbonyl compounds, as well as new Ag-containing catalytic composites, are presented.