New Generation Green Technology for Synthesis of Methacrolein, Methacrylate and Methallyl Alcohol

The first in China 10-kt/a-class commercial demonstration unit for manufacture of MMA with coproduction of MAO set up at Heze city, Shandong province has been till now operating for nearly 8000 hours with the unit running smoothly to deliver quality products. It means that China has the new generation green technology with independent intellectual property rights to manufacture a series of products including methacrolein, methacrylate and methallyl alcohol.

It is told that this demonstration unit established by the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE), CAS, in collaboration with the Shandong Yidali Chemical Company, Ltd. adopts the new process using isobutylene/tert-butanol, which are obtained from byproducts of petroleum oil pyrolysis, as the feed to manufacture MAL via catalytic oxidation, and to produce MMA via oxidative esterification and to manufacture MAO via catalytic hydrogenation. Compared to the traditional technology characteristic of heavy pollution, this technology does not use toxic feedstocks and has less wastewater discharge and is free from waste sludge discharge. After optimization and conditioning of process regime, the purity of products delivered by this demonstration unit is steadily improved coupled with further reduction in consumption of isobutylene/tert-butyl alcohol. The outcome for application of the delivered products by the downstream customers has shown that both the yield and the quality of synthesized polyether monomers have been improved.

It is learned from the Shandong Yidali Chemical Company that construction of the first 50 kt/a MMA unit with coproduction of 20 kt/a MAO using the core technology licensed by IPE has been kicked off, with the commissioning of these two units slated for the 2nd quarter of 2016 and the 3rd quarter of 2015, respectively. This new technology has been granted a lot of international and Chinese invention patents and has passed the scientific achievement appraisal organized by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association.