J. Masamoto et K. Matsuzaki, DEVELOPMENT OF METHYLAL SYNTHESIS BY REACTIVE DISTILLATION, Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan, 27(1), 1994, pp. 1-5
The world's first technology for the commercial production of methylal
is the reactive distillation method. Its application to a new formald
ehyde process has also been investigated. Whereas the oxidation of met
hanol yields one mole of water per mole of formaldehyde, methylal oxid
ation produces only one mole of water for every three moles of formald
ehyde. Thus, the output by methylal oxidation is more than 70 % formal
dehyde compared with 55 % by methanol oxidation.For this purpose. basi
c research on methylal synthesis was conducted and the world's first c
ommercial production of methylal using reactive distillation was accom
plished. Using this methylal, the world's first methylal oxidation tec
hnology for manufacturing highly concentrated aqueous formaldehyde was
established. This highly concentrated aqueous formaldehyde is then fe
d to an acetal homopolymer and copolymer plant having a combined capac
ity of 35,000 tons/year.