Monday, November 5, 2007

Production Method for Dimethoxymethane

Jeshua D. Gonzalez and Javad Tavakoli. Chemical Engineering, Lafayette College, Box 7799 Farinon Center, Easton, PA 18042

Dimethoxymethane (DMM) has uses both in multiple consumer products and as a renewable source of energy. Consumer products that use DMM include perfumes, resins, adhesives, paint strippers and coatings. Due to recent environmental concerns with diesel and a limited supply of fossil fuels, there is also interest in using DMM as a form of biodiesel and/or diesel fuel additive.

If DMM is to be used as a significant source of fuel or fuel additive, the production of DMM should dramatically increase. The current method for producing DMM from methanol does so through a two-step process. This process is especially difficult to implement on a large industrial scale.

Several studies have reported on producing DMM through a one-step method. The key to such production has been found to depend on the catalyst used for the reaction. This project focuses on DMM production using multiple metal oxide catalysts.