Catalytic Hydrogenation of Methylacetylene
The reaction between methylacetylene and hydrogen over supported and unsupported nickel catalysts has been investigated in a static constant volume system for a wide range of temperature and reactant ratios. The pressure–time curves consist of two linear portions of different slopes. The reaction over nickel is largely simple hydrogenation, the early stages being principally a selective production of propylene with small yields of reduced polymers of methylacetylene. The orders of the hydrogenation reaction are first and zero with respect to hydrogen and methylacetylene respectively. The overall apparent activation energies for nickel–pumice and nickel–kieselguhr are 16.8 and 14.0 kcal/mole and for unsupported nickel catalysts vary between 17.2 and 20.0 kcal/mole. A satisfactory "compensation effect" exists between the activation energies and logarithmic values of the pre-exponential factors. The unsupported catalysts were not poisoned when methylacetylene was added first to the reaction vessel.