Process for the production of ethylene glycol and/or glycollic acid esters, and catalyst therefor

Abstract From the Canadian patent

In a process for producing ethylene gylcol and/ or a glycollic acid ester by the vapor phase catalytic hydrogenation of an oxalic acid diester in the presence of a catalyst and hydrogen gas, the improvement wherein the catalyst has the following composition formula CuMokBapOq, wherein k, p and q represent gram-atoms of Mo Ba and O, respectively, per gram-atom of Cu k is a number of from, 0 to 3, p is a number of from 0 to 6 and q is a number, determinded depending upon the atomic valence and gramatoms of Cu, Mo and Ba, provided that k and p are not zero at the same time; and the aforesaid catalyst.