1. Introduction

Formaldehyde, one of the basic one-carbon chemicals, is an important raw material for chemical industry.

Due to its high chemical activity, formaldehyde is easy to be polymerized and is an important intermediate for chemical synthesis.

Formaldehyde is mainly used to produce numerous synthetic materials, including thermosetting urea-formaldehyde, phenolic and melamine-formaldehyde resins, melamine-formaldehyde resins, vinylon, as well as chemical products including pentaerythritol, 1,4-butanediol,  trimethylolpropane, and Uroto, isoprene, MDI, and neopentyl glycol, which are widely used to produce adhesives, coatings, resin plastics, explosives, dyes, medicines, and pesticides.

At present, 90% of the formaldehyde is produced by oxidation of methanol, and a small portion is produced by direct oxidation of hydrocarbons or dimethyl ether.

The production of formaldehyde from methanol can be divided into two different routes according to the catalysts and production processes used.

One is under the condition of excess methanol, methanol gas, steam and water vapor mixture were dehydrogenated with metal catalyst, usually using crystalline Ag as catalyst, called "silver method".

The other is under the condition of excess air, the methanol gas is directly mixed with air and oxidized with a metal oxide type catalyst, which is most commonly Fe2O3-MoO3 and its derivatives, and it is called "iron-molybdenum method".

2. Technical advantages

With years of experience in production of formaldehyde and design of formaldehyde plant for our clients, Whitefan Chemical Company can provide a complete set of “silver method” and “iron-molybdenum method” technology to produce formaldehyde through oxidization of methanol with the following advantages:

(1) Simplify the traditional complex process by adopting innovative short process of evaporation-oxidation-absorption with small floor space and low investment;

(2) High heat utilization rate and be able to produce products with low alcohol impurity and high formaldehyde concentration