DEVELOPMENT OF METHYLAL SYNTHESIS BY REACTIVE DISTILLATION

The world's first technology for the commercial production of methylal is the reactive distillation method. Its application to a new formaldehyde process has also been investigated. Whereas the oxidation of methanol yields one mole of water per mole of formaldehyde, methylal oxidation produces only one mole of water for every three moles of formaldehyde. Thus, the output by methylal oxidation is more than 70 % formaldehyde compared with 55 % by methanol oxidation. For this purpose. basic research on methylal synthesis was conducted and the world's first commercial production of methylal using reactive distillation was accomplished. Using this methylal, the world's first methylal oxidation technology for manufacturing highly concentrated aqueous formaldehyde was established. This highly concentrated aqueous formaldehyde is then fed to an acetal homopolymer and copolymer plant having a combined capacity of 35,000 tons/year.