Consecutive hydrogenation of methyl benzoate to non-chloride benzyl alcohol over K-MnO/ γ-Al₂O₃ and Cu/SiO₂ catalysts was investigated in a fixed-bed stainless-steel reactor. The effects of reaction conditions on catalytic activity were also studied. The results indicated that Cu/SiO₂ prepared by adsorbed- precipitation method owned larger pore diameter and volume than others, CuO dispersed well on the surface of catalyst, and it was easily re-duced at relative lower temperature. K-MnO/γ-Al₂O₃ and Cu/SiO₂-C15.2 exhibited higher activity and selectivity for continuous hydrogenation of methyl benzoate to benzyl alcohol, the conversion of methyl benzoate was 89.2% and the selectivity of ben-zyl alcohol reached 84.1%. Molar ratio of hydrogen to benzaldehyde was increased in consecutive hydro-genation process, which is beneficial to enhancing the selectivity of benzyl alcohol. Characterization results of XRD, SEM and TPR revealed that CuO dispersed well on Cu/SiO₂-C catalyst which pre-pared by adsorption-precipitation method, and it showed best activity for hydrogenation of benzaldehyde to benzyl alcohol.

Key words: continuous hydrogenation, benzyl alcohol, methyl benzoate, K-MnO/γ-Al₂O₃, Cu/SiO₂ catalyst