Patent ID: 8841498

Claim:
A process for the preparation of a supported nickel on silica catalyst which catalyst has a nickel content of 40 to 85 weight-% (calculated as NiO), a silicon content of 15 to 60 weight-% (calculated as SiO 2 ), a titanium content of 0.5 to 5.0 weight-% (calculated as TiO 2 ), and does not contain more than 0.20 weight-% iron (calculated as Fe), wherein the catalyst has a monomodal Ni-crystallite size distribution with a mean crystallite size of the reduced catalyst of 1.5 to 3.5 nm, a pore volume of at least 0.60 ml/g and wherein the proportion of the pore volume of pores with a pore diameter of ≧10 nm is at least 55%; wherein the process comprises reacting a metal salt solution which comprises a nickel ion source and a titanium ion source and which is substantially free of iron with a sodium waterglass solution, which waterglass is a SiO 2 source, at a pH from 8 to 9.5 and at a temperature from 70° C. to 100° C., so as to co-precipitate a catalyst material and recovering the co-precipitated catalyst material to obtain a supported nickel on silica catalyst, and optionally drying, calcining and reducing.