	US 7,569,731 B2
	Process for the manufacture of methylmercaptan
Yiquan Yang, Xiamen (China); Qi Wang, Xiamen (China); Renchun Lin, Xiamen (China); Hongbin Zhang, Xiamen (China); Youzhu Yuan, Xiamen (China); Weiping Fang, Xiamen (China); Quanxing Zheng, Xiamen (China); Shenjun Dai, Xiamen (China); Xingguo Yan, Xiamen (China); Aiping Chen, Xiamen (China); Jan-Olaf Barth, Frankfurt am Main (Germany); Christoph Weckbecker, Gründau-Lieblos (Germany); Klaus Huthmacher, Gelnhausen (Germany); Hubert Redlingshöfer, Münchsteinach (Germany); and Sabine Ackermann, Hanau (Germany)
Assigned to Degussa AG, Düsseldorf (Germany)
Appl. No. 10/595,333 PCT Filed Sep. 29, 2004, PCT No. PCT/EP2004/010872 § 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jan. 26, 2007, PCT Pub. No. WO2005/040082, PCT Pub. Date May 06, 2005.
Claims priority of application No. 2003 1 0100495 (CN), filed on Oct. 10, 2003; application No. 2003 1 0100496 (CN), filed on Oct. 10, 2003; and application No. 2004 1 0008377 (CN), filed on Mar. 12, 2004.
Prior Publication US 2007/0213564 A1, Sep. 13, 2007
Int. Cl. C07C 319/16 (2006.01)

U.S. Cl. 568—70

21 Claims

1. A continuous process for the manufacture of methylmercaptan comprising contacting in a reactor an intimate mixture of carbon oxides, sulfur or hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen as reactants in a proportion of 1/0/1/0 to 1/10/10/10 at elevated temperature of from 300-450° C. and pressure of at least 4 bar and total gas hourly space velocity of 750-3000 h⁻¹over a preformed solid catalyst comprising an active component of Mo—O—K-based species, an active promoter which is a mixture of oxides or sulfides or sulfides and oxides of an element M wherein M is selected from the group consisting of iron, cobalt, nickel, lanthanum, cerium and manganese, and the oxides have the formula M_xO_ywhere x and y are integers from 1 to 5 and, optionally, a carrier;

wherein the catalyst K₂MoO₄/M_xO_y/carrier has a weight ratio of contents equal to 0.01-0.80/0.01-0.10/1, when the active component is expressed by K₂MoO₄; or the catalyst MoO₃/k₂O/M_xO_y/carrier has a weight ratio of contents equal to 0.10-0.50/0.10-0.30/0.01-0.10/1, When the active component is expressed by MoO₃and K₂O.