Methyl is an excellent organic solvent and the market space is growing.
Methyl, the English abbreviation DMM, is also known as dimethyl formal and dimethoxymethane. The molecular formula is C3H8O2. It is an organic compound that appears as a colorless and transparent liquid with an odor similar to chloroform. It is toxic and irritating. Sexual, highly flammable. Methyl has excellent solubility and is miscible with most organic solvents such as ethanol, ether, acetone, etc. It can dissolve a variety of resins and is soluble in water.
The preparation methods of methylal mainly include: using methanol and formaldehyde as raw materials, using concentrated sulfuric acid as catalyst, and making it through a reaction; using methanol as raw material, making it through catalytic gas phase oxidation reaction in the presence of hydrogen chloride; using methanol and trimerformaldehyde As a raw material, it is produced by reaction in the presence of calcium chloride and hydrogen chloride; it is separated from the methanol residue of glyphosate produced by alkyl ester method. The first three are methods of synthesizing methylal, and the latter is a method of recycling by-products to produce methylal.
According to the “Methyl Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center, due to With excellent solubility, methylal is mainly used as a solvent with low VOCs emissions. It is a new solvent promoted by the State Environmental Protection Administration and can be widely used in cosmetics, medicines, adhesives, paint thinners, inks, paint removers, and leather. Bright agent and other fields; methylal has good decontamination ability and can be used as a detergent to clean fiberglass tools, etc.; methylal can also be used as a resin plasticizer, special fuel, and in the production of spices, analgesics, and insecticides wait.
Polymethoxydimethylether (DMMn) is an important diesel additive. DMM3-6 has the advantages of high cetane number, high oxygen content, and good miscibility with diesel. It can improve the quality of diesel and reduce its pollutants. Emissions, as my country’s motor vehicle exhaust emission standards continue to improve, its demand continues to grow, with an annual demand of about 31.5 million tons. In the polymethoxydimethylether production process, most process raw materials contain methylal, so the methylal market space is constantly increasing.
In terms of purity, methylal with a purity of less than 99% is crude methylal, and methylal with a purity of more than 99% is refined methylal. Refined methylal needs to be purified on the basis of crude methylal, the higher the purity. The higher the added value of the product, the more difficult it is to produce. In the Chinese market, there are a small number of methylal manufacturers with purity of 99.9% and above, mainly Changcheng Xinneng Co., Ltd., Zhenjiang Li Changrong High Performance Materials Co., Ltd., etc. Among them, Changcheng Xinneng is my country’s largest refined methylal export enterprise.
Industry analysts said that methylal is an important organic solvent, its solubility is better than ether, acetone, and VOCs It has low emissions and can be used as an environmentally friendly solvent to replace traditional organic solvents; in most polymethoxydimethylether production processes, methylal is an indispensable raw material, and the demand for polymethoxydimethylether as a diesel additive is increasing. increase. From this point of view, methylal has a large market space and the future industry development prospects are good.
