Butandiol expert help

[Sciencenutz]

I have been trying over and over again on this bdo to gbl synth and am stuck...I have bought bdo and take 10kg melt it to liquid then put in a 20L flask then I take 450g copper chromite cas 12018-10-9 and set up my condenser for reflux...I then heat in my 20L mantle but for some reason everytime I get to around 160-170c the temp just stops rising and sits there even after a few hours it won't get to 200c. It refluxes at this temp so my question is am I doing something wrong? Does the bdo need to be distilled first for this reaction?..my mantle is easily capable of reaching 200c as I've got there on other reactions. PLEASE someone out there could help or diagnose issue with experience on this?

 

[Sciencenutz]

There is some hydrogen gas started around 162 165c but even if I let it reflux at this temp for 6 hours the reaction isn't even close to being done...