Patent ID: 7569731

Claim:
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 −1 over 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 x O y where x and y are integers from 1 to 5 and, optionally, a carrier; wherein the catalyst K 2 MoO 4 /M x O 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 K 2 MoO 4 ; or the catalyst MoO 3 /k 2 O/M x O 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 MoO 3 and K 2 O.