Seeking advice on the industrial production of sodium methoxide

Currently, the production of sodium methoxide generally involves the reaction of methanol with a base followed by distillation. The process is as follows: (Methanol + solid base) → formation of a solution of the base → standing aside → dehydration → final product. The main equipment used in this process is a reactive distillation tower. The process is briefly described as follows: Solid sodium hydroxide and methanol are mixed in a certain ratio; after stirring to ensure dissolution, precipitation and clarification are carried out to remove solid impurities. The clear solution is pumped to the top of the reaction dehydration tower, while pure methanol vapor is introduced from the bottom of the tower where continuous reaction and dehydration take place, with the product being obtained from the bottom of the tower. The aqueous methanol vapor exits from the top of the tower and enters a distillation system for purification, while the anhydrous methanol is reused. From a process perspective, the sodium slag present in the product is mainly insoluble impurities originating from solid alkali. It has also been reported that the impurities Na2CO3 and NaCl in solid alkali have very low solubility in methanol; excessive levels of Na2CO3 and NaCl can cause the alkaline solution to take longer to precipitate, or even prevent complete precipitation. An excessive content of Fe2O3 can cause the alkaline solution to turn yellow, which ultimately results in the sodium methoxide product also turning yellow. This post was last edited by zhangyong6404 on 2009-2-17 09:09.]

Thank you for the reply from above. We mainly use the sodium residue left after electrolyzing sodium chloride to produce sodium methoxide. Since we are not aware of what other impurities are present in this sodium residue besides calcium, we do not know how to deal with the sodium methoxide that is yellow in color and contains white flocculent substances.