Process Development For Hydrogenation Of Dimethyl Oxalate To Methyl Glycolate

Methyl glycolate (MG) is an important chemical intermediate. Our country has abundant coal resources, but also has the fact of the shortage of oil. For this condition, it has great significance for our country to develop a way which used C1 line to prepare the MG. The line is based on syngas with the reaction system of carbonization coupling of CO to dimethyl oxalate (DMO) and the hydrogenation of DMO to MG. This is an article to study the process development for hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate to methyl glycolate. The method was established to analysis the products of hydrogenation. We made use of gas chromatography to analysis samples, chose N-butanol as an internal standard, used internal standard method for quantitative analysis each component of the product, drew the calibration curve for each component and verified its accuracy. In its concentration range, the relative error of mass measurement was less than 5%. Temperature, LHSV, H2/Ester and pressure was studied to find its effect on the catalytic performance of DMO hydrogenation over Cu-based catalyst, so can we determine an appropriate reaction condition. The separation scheme of hydrogenation products was determined. The sequences of each scheme were determined too. It was determined the number of theoretical plates of distillation column by using total reflux operation and continuous operation. The separation process was simulated by Aspen Plus, and its results were based on to guide the experiments. We examined the conventional separation process and the process that had consideration of heat-sensitive. Finally, we chose the process that had consideration of heat-sensitive by comparing. The purpose was achieved with the separation of MG from hydrogenation products.