The Catalytic Hydrogenolysis of Esters to Alcohols

Abstract The hydrogenolysis of esters to alcohols is a reaction between esters and hydrogen which selectively splits a C-0 bond adjacent to a carbonyl group (1). A well-known large-scale industrial process based on this reaction the production of fatty alcohols from natural fatty acid esters-has been operated commercially for more than 50 years. Several processes which include the hydrogenolysis of an ester have been proposed for the manufacture of basic chemicals such as methanol and ethanol. Furthermore, there has been continuous interest over the past two decades in replacing the existing, energy-intensive processes for the production of ethylene glycol and 1,4-butanedioI by more cost-effective routes involving ester hydrogenolysis. While particular aspects of the literature on hydrogenolysis of esters have been reviewed already [1–3], the objective of the present work is to give a more general summary with special emphasis on the present or possible industrial applications of ester hydrogenolysis.