Discuss the acetylene carbonylation method for producing acrylic acid and acrylates
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Acrylic acid or acrylates are produced by reacting acetylene with carbon monoxide and water or other alcohols under the catalysis of nickel-based catalysts. At present, there are no cases of industrial-scale installations in the country yet. It seems that the Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted pilot and pilot-scale tests in the past, but did not proceed further with them. I believe that if this approach works, it will have a greater cost advantage over the propylene oxidation method.
If it can be industrialized, its cost will of course be much lower than that of propylene
It seems like this one isn’t mature yet, huh>?
Pay attention! I hope there will be some breakthroughs; the profits from acrylics and their derivatives are really high right now!
This route has no future; the devices abroad have all been discontinued, and the technology developed by the Chengdu Institute of Organic Chemistry is still very rudimentary.
Why is it said to have no future – is it because the costs are not competitive? Is it still because the technology is not yet mature?
BASF’s process is an improved Reber method; the main issue is its low yield, which is less than 70%. Moreover, BASF does not use calcium carbide-based acetylene; it uses only natural gas-derived acetylene. As you know, the price of natural gas in Europe is over 5 yuan per cubic meter when converted to RMB. BASF requires 6,500 cubic meters of methane to produce one ton of acetylene. Subtracting by-product methanol. BASF’s natural gas acetylene plant has a cost of at least 25,000 RMB per ton of acetylene. BASF certainly no longer operates natural gas acetylene plants. In China, the cost of acetylene produced by the calcium carbide method is just over 12,000 per ton. The only domestic facility for producing acetylene from natural gas is that owned by Chuanwei; since Chuanwei is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sinopec, it enjoys preferential internal prices for purchasing natural gas. As a result, the cost of producing acetylene using this natural gas-based method is roughly equivalent to the cost of producing acetylene via the calcium carbide method.
Therefore, we must analyze each situation on its own; we can’t conclude that a particular route has no future just because BASF has stopped using it.
I also attach great importance to the route of synthesizing acrylic acid via acetylene carbonylation; the development of coal chemical industry in China can drive research on this technology. At present, there seem to be few companies in China engaged in carbonyl synthesis, and the technology is not yet very mature; further research is needed regarding process conditions as well as the development of catalysts. If it can move towards industrialization, the profits should be good
Wanwei plans to start pilot production on a scale of 1,000 tons per year
I’m a bit confused! Both the synthesis of acrylic acid from acetic acid/formaldehyde is profitable, whereas the synthesis of acrylic acid through glycosylation is not profitable at all!