Research Of Preparation Of Pyridine From Tetrahydrofurfuryl Alcohol

Pyridine is an important basic chemical material. Pyridine and its derivatives are widely used in fields such as pesticide, medicine and cosmetics.The process for the synthesis of pyridine using tetrahydrofurfuryl alcohol(THFA)as material was researched in this article. Pyridine was prepared by THFA and ammonia in a tubular fixed bed reactor under effects of metallic oxide catalysts and high temperature. In order to deal with the high cost of catalyst carriers applied in previous works, three new catalyst carriers-stripγ-Al₂O₃, Al-Si(1),Al-Si(2)were researched for replacement. The rate of conversion of THFA was 98.33%, selectivity of pyridine was 72.23%, the reaction yield of pyridine was71.02% with 10% MoO₃/ Al₂O₃ loaded on stripγ-Al₂O₃, when reacting temperature was 550℃, the flow rate of THFA was 0.1mL/min and n(THFA):n(NH₃)=1:4. Different major catalysts were researched, 10% MoO₃/ Al₂O₃ was affirmed as the best major catalyst. Multiplex catalysts were also researched, the properties of catalysts were further improved by the add of cocatalyst into major catalyst. The rate of conversion of THFA was99.12%, selectivity of pyridine was87.09%, the reaction yield of pyridine was 86.32% with 10%MoO₃-3%Ce₂O₃-2%MgO as the catalyst, when reacting temperature was 550℃, the flow rate of THFA was 0.1mL/min and n(THFA):n(NH₃)=1:4.The lifetime of metallic oxide catalysts was also researched. The yield of pyridine decreased to about half of the previous yield after a reaction time of 62h.