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    Noor Fatihah
    There are two main processes for producing formaldehyde: using a silver catalyst or a metal oxide catalyst. The silver catalyst process involves passing methanol vapor over a silver catalyst at 650°C, which dehydrogenates the methanol in an endothermic reaction. The metal oxide catalyst process uses molybdenum and iron oxide catalysts to oxidize a mixture of air and methanol at 350°C in an exothermic reaction. Both processes have advantages like recyclability and disadvantages like potential dangerous reactions if not properly controlled.

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    Part 1 (Reaction)

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    There are two main processes for producing formaldehyde: using a silver catalyst or a metal oxide catalyst. The silver catalyst process involves passing methanol vapor over a silver catalyst at 650°C, which dehydrogenates the methanol in an endothermic reaction. The metal oxide catalyst process uses molybdenum and iron oxide catalysts to oxidize a mixture of air and methanol at 350°C in an exothermic reaction. Both processes have advantages like recyclability and disadvantages like potential dangerous reactions if not properly controlled.

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    There are two main processes for producing formaldehyde: using a silver catalyst or a metal oxide catalyst. The silver catalyst process involves passing methanol vapor over a silver catalyst at 650°C, which dehydrogenates the methanol in an endothermic reaction. The metal oxide catalyst process uses molybdenum and iron oxide catalysts to oxidize a mixture of air and methanol at 350°C in an exothermic reaction. Both processes have advantages like recyclability and disadvantages like potential dangerous reactions if not properly controlled.

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    113 views4 pages

    Part 1 (Reaction)

    Uploaded by

    Noor Fatihah
    There are two main processes for producing formaldehyde: using a silver catalyst or a metal oxide catalyst. The silver catalyst process involves passing methanol vapor over a silver catalyst at 650°C, which dehydrogenates the methanol in an endothermic reaction. The metal oxide catalyst process uses molybdenum and iron oxide catalysts to oxidize a mixture of air and methanol at 350°C in an exothermic reaction. Both processes have advantages like recyclability and disadvantages like potential dangerous reactions if not properly controlled.

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    of 4

    Production of Formaldehyde

    In this production of Formaldehyde, there are two common main production


    process which are dehydrogenation of methanol by catalytic oxidation using silver
    catalyst process and dehydrogenation of methanol by catalytic oxidation using metal
    oxide catalyst process (Formox process).

    For the first process which is silver catalyst route, a catalytic reactor of thin bed
    filled with silver-crystal catalyst will passed over by methanol in vapour phase with air
    and steam at temperature of 650oC. Dehydrogenation of methanol is a highly
    endothermic will produce formaldehyde. The heat needed for the endothermic reaction
    is obtained by burning hydrogen contained in the off-gas produced from the
    dehydrogenation reaction.

    For metal oxide catalyst route, it involves the oxidation of methanol over a
    catalyst of metal oxide that is of molybdenum and iron oxide. A mixture of air and
    methanol is vaporised and then passed into catalyst-packed reactor tubes. For this
    process, the reaction highly exothermic at temperature of 350oC. The reaction
    generates heat to provide steam for turbines and process heating (Essays UK, 2018).

    Advantages

    There are a few advantages for these two processes for producing of
    formaldehyde, first of all is for silver catalyst process. For this process, one of the
    advantages is in the process of producing high yields, distilled methanol can be
    recovered and recycled, higher conversion and high atomic economies. It also less
    formic acid and no caustic soda and antifoam agent makes the product more versatile
    for all formulations and customer. Next, this process is the most inexpensive cost in
    mass production of formaldehyde because it is fully generated. This process also has
    less requirement for silver as catalyst as the silver can be recovered and has long
    lifespan of three to eight months. The catalyst can be removed without dust and waste
    in a few hours. Finally, in this process only used water or steam rather than hot oil and
    this will decrease the risk from having fire or explosion while running the process
    producing product. In addition, there is no oxygen in the absorber, this is not only
    decreasing the fire risk but also can improves the product quality as well.

    For Metal oxide catalyst process or FORMOX process, one of the advantages
    of this process over the silver based catalyst is the absence of the distillation column
    to separate unreacted methanol and formaldehyde product. It also has a life span of
    12 to 18 months, larger than the sliver catalyst. Next, the metal oxide catalyst uses
    lower temperature when the reaction takes place which is in the range of 250-345oC.
    Furthermore, by comparison with both catalyst, iron-molybdenum oxide catalyst which
    is the metal oxide used for this process is cheaper than silver catalyst. Besides, the
    catalyst from solution does not have to be recovered because of the FORMOX process
    undergoes gas-phase reaction. Next, the recovery of heat energy from the reaction
    help to decrease economic and environmental effects because of the process is highly
    exothermic. Moreover, waste can also be minimized throughout the process by using
    air as an oxidant. It is because the toxicity and by-products formed could be reduced
    by using air instead of chemical oxidising agents. Last but not least, the unreacted
    compound will be in a minimum amount as the conversion rates achieved is high,
    making the purification steps to be simplified. It also increases the efficiency of energy,
    material and equipment in the process (Shitole Karan, 2016).

    Disadvantages

    Although silver catalyst process has numerous advantages, it also has some
    disadvantages. Firstly, high pressure drops could happen in the process within a short
    time. Secondly, the usage of silver catalyst in a process will yield lesser formaldehyde
    compared to when using metal oxide catalyst. Furthermore, as the catalyst is sensitive
    to the impurities of iron-group, the purity of feed flowrate or the reactant is highly
    important. Last but not least, if there are transition metal presence in the process, it will
    affect the reaction and decrease the production rates.

    From the disadvantages of silver catalyst process mentioned above, there are
    actions that can be taken to avoid the negative impacts from happening in the process.
    Firstly, the process should be frequently shut down, in order to replace the catalyst that
    had been used. This is to avoid high pressure drop from happening in a short time.
    The rapid rise for the pressure drop could also be reduced by choosing two-stage
    process instead of the critical second oxidation stage process. Next, by lowering the
    initial capital investment, it can overcome the low production yield. Moreover, the
    temperature and other factors must be properly controlled throughout the process in
    order to avoid unwanted reactions from happening when there is transition metal
    presence.

    For the metal oxide catalyst process, it also has disadvantages. Firstly, if air is
    excessively feed the process, there might be unwanted mixture in the air which could
    make dangerous reactions to occur. Moreover, the tail gas also contains lots of
    impurities and flammable compound. Last but not least, the operating cost when using
    metal oxide as a catalyst in a process is higher compared to silver catalyst process
    because to increase the gas flow, large equipment is needed.

    However, despite the disadvantages of using metal oxide as a catalyst in a


    process, there are improvement actions could be taken to avoid such problems. Firstly,
    a proper care must be taken seriously to avoid dangerous reactions from happening
    which they are usually caused of the excessive air feeding the process. Secondly,
    flammable compound at the tail gas can be burnt by adding fuel to the system, which
    it is to avoid fire or explosion from occurring at the tail gas (phoenix, n.d.).

    Process Flow Diagram


    Figure 1: Process Flow Diagram of silver catalyst process

    Figure 2: Process Flow Diagram of metal oxide catalyst process (anonymous, 2016)

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