Organic chemistry

Distillation

Methyl formate

Reactive distillation

Hydrolysis

Catalysis

Chemistry

Fractional distillation

Formic acid

Methanol

Formate

Chromatography

Journal of Chemical Engineering of Chinese Universities

Hydrolysis of methyl formate to form formic acid was studied experimentally by using strong-acid cation-exchange resin as catalyst and packing in a catalytic distillation column. The hydrolysis conversion rate over 90% was obtained via changing operation parameters of the total-reflux operation. Taking the inhibition of the water to the reaction into account and based on the revised kinetic equation and equilibrium-stage theory, a mathematic model coupling the catalytic reaction with distillation separation was proposed. The process simulations were carried out by changing different operation parameters, such as the feed molar ratio of water to methyl formate, the molar ratio of reflux to feed and the theoretic stages of reaction and separation sections, then a more appropriate operation condition was proposed. The results show that the simulated results are in good agreement with the experiments and the hydrolysis rate can be increased by changing operation conditions to adjust the concentrations of water and methyl formate in the reaction section. It is found that increasing the height of the reaction section is more favorable than that of the separation section, the methanol can be separated from the formic acid completely in a catalytic distillation column, and in the reaction section, the reaction rate at the top and bottom ends of the section are higher than that at the middle.

Study on Hydrolysis of Methyl Formate into Formic Acid in a Catalytic Distillation Column