Selective oxidation of methylal as a new catalytic route to concentrated formaldehyde: Reaction kinetic profile in gradientless flow reactor

Catalytic selective oxidation of methylal (dimethoxy methane, DMM) was regarded as a new alternative for the production of highly concentrated formaldehyde. The aim of this work was to study the reaction kinetics in order to find optimum reaction conditions. The reaction was tested on iron–molybdenum mixed oxide catalysts in gradientless stirred jet reactor operating at atmospheric pressure. The activity and selectivity of the catalyst prepared in our laboratory has proved similar to the industrial catalyst. It has been demonstrated that the highest selectivity towards formaldehyde 90% is achieved at a fairly narrow parameter window: temperature in the range 230–260 °C, at a contact time around 1 s, in the reaction mixture containing O2:N2:(CH3)2CH2O2:H2O = 0.08:0.76:0.11:0.05.