Patent ID: 8460937

Claim:
A method of screening catalysts for liquid-phase selective hydrogenation comprising: preparing a test catalyst by adding a promoter selected from the group consisting of Group IB metals, Group IIB metals, Group IIIA metals, Group VIIB metals, and combinations thereof, to a reference catalyst comprising a supported Group VIII metal catalyst precursor; preparing a liquid reactant comprising C 2 H 2 dissolved in n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone; separately testing both the test catalyst and the reference catalyst by contacting the liquid reactant and a gas mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide in continuous flow with each of the test catalyst and the reference catalyst, respectively, at selective hydrogenation reaction conditions to produce a product stream from each of the test catalyst and the reference catalyst, condensing substantially all of the n-methyl-2-pyrrolidone from each product stream; measuring the concentrations of products comprising C 2 H 2 , C 2 H 4 , and C 2 H 6 in each product stream at steady state; determining performance parameters for both the test catalyst and the reference catalyst respectively, wherein the performance parameters comprise the respective C 2 H 2 conversion S c , and C 2 H 4 selectivity relative to C 2 H 6 S s ; and comparing the performance parameters of the test catalyst with the performance parameters of the reference catalyst.