Methanation over synthetic amorphous silicas

Claim 1

A process comprising (1) contacting a feedstock selected from the group consisting of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide with a solid catalyst material in the presence of hydrogen and under process conditions including a temperature of from about 250° to about 700° C, a pressure of from about 1 atmosphere to about 150 atmospheres, a gas hourly space velocity, expressed at standard temperature and pressure, of from about 5,000 hr -1 to about 100,000 hr -1 and a hydrogen/feedstock mole ratio of from about 1 to about 10 and (2) recovering a product containing methane, said solid catalyst material containing a synthetic amorphous solid prepared by the steps of hydrolyzing and polymerizing at a temperature of up to about 200° C in the presence of water a silane having the formula R(Si)X 3 , wherein R is an organic radical selected from the group consisting of alkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, alkenyl, cycloalkenyl and the said radicals hydroxy-substituted, halogen-substituted and amino-substituted, X is halogen, alkoxy of from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, aryloxy of from 1 to 20 carbon atoms, alkali metaloxy, alkaline earth metaloxy, carboxy or amino and (Si) is selected from the group consisting of ##STR9## and ##STR10## and calcining the polymerized product, said silane being admixed with a second component, R' n MY m , wherein R' is the same as R, Y is selected from the group consisting of the same groups as X and oxygen, M is selected from the group consisting of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, palladium, aluminium and mixtures thereof, m is any number greater than 0 and up to 8 and n is from 0 to any number less than 8.