Comparative study of synthesis of methylamines from carbon oxides and ammonia over Cu/A12O3

Methylamines have been synthesized from carbon dioxide, hydrogen and ammonia using Cu/Al₂O₃ catalysts with different copper loading. The reaction was performed in a fixed-bed micro reactor in the temperature range 473–573 K and at 0.6 MPa total pressure. The product amines were mono-, di- and trimethylamine (MMA, DMA, TMA). The distribution of the amines depended mainly on the reaction temperature and the NH₃/CO₂ ratio in the feed gas. At elevated temperatures and higher NH₃ concentrations methanol synthesis is suppressed and MMA is the main amine product, reaching a ratio of MMA:DMA:TMA of 1:0.23:0.07. Conversion and product distribution were compared to that of the corresponding reaction starting from CO or methanol instead of CO₂. With CO conversion was lower but the selectivity to MMA was higher. If CO₂ was replaced by methanol, conversion increased and TMA was the main product. In all experiments a change of space velocity had relatively little influence on both conversion and distribution of amines.