Research Of Acrylic Acid And Methyl Acrylate Production From Methyl Lactate

Acrylic acid and its ester derivatives are principal raw materials in the manufacture of polymeric products. The polymers made of acrylic acid and its derivatives are characterized by color lasting, stability to light, moderate heat as well as weathering. And they are widely applied in surface coatings, textiles, adhesives, paper treatment, polishes, leather, fibers, and super-absorbent polymer, etc.Based on detailed investigation of related literatures, the dehydration reaction of methyl lactate was determined, which was carried out over CaSO₄/CuSO₄ catalyst with Na₂HPO₄/KH₂PO₄ as promoters in a fixed-bed reactor at high temperature with N₂ as carrier gas.In the experiments, the effects of acidity of the catalyst, the ratio of water/methyl lactate in feeding stock, reaction temperature, flow rate of N₂ and feeding stock on the conversion ratio and yield were investigated. The results showed that the optimum conditions were: the mass ratio of CaSO₄, CuSO₄, Na₂HPO₄ and KH₂PO₄ was 150.0:8.8:2.5:1.2, the mass ratio of water/methyl lactate in feeding stock 40:60, temperature 400℃, flow rate of N₂ 20 ml-min"1, flow rate of feeding stock 0.22 ml-min^-1. At these conditions, the total yield of methyl acrylate and acrylic acid reached 61.30%. By esterification and purification, methyl acrylate with the total yield of 55% was obtained.The activation method of the catalysts was also investigated in this thesis.