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Published on: October 10, 2013
Vapor-phase carbonylation of dimethoxymethane over H-Faujasite
Fuat E Celik1, Tae-Jin Kim, Alexis T Bell
1Chemical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Abstract:
Carbonylation gets a phase lift: The usual liquid-phase, high-pressure processes for carbonylating formaldehydes are avoided in a novel vapor-phase reaction. Using an acid zeolite (Faujasite) at near-atmospheric pressure dimethoxymethane (DMM; the dimethyl acetal of formaldehyde; see scheme) is carbonylated to produce methyl methoxyacetate (MMAc). This approach provides a new route to ethylene glycol under mild conditions.
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