Excellent prospects in methyl methoxyacetate synthesis with a highly active and reusable sulfonic acid resin catalyst

Methyl methoxyacetate (MMAc) was a significant chemical product and could be applied as gasoline and diesel fuels additive. This study aimed to achieve the industrial production of MMAc via dimethoxymethane (DMM) carbonylation. The effects of industrial DMM sources, reaction temperature, water content, pretreatment temperature, reaction pressure and time, the ratio of CO to DMM as well as recycle times were systematically investigated without any solvent. The conversion of DMM was 99.98% with 50.66% selectivity of MMAc at 393 K, 6.0 MPa reaction pressure, with the ratio of CO to DMM only 1.97/1. When water was extracted from DMM reactant, the MMAc selectivity significantly rose to 68.83%. This resin catalyst was reused for more than nineteen times in a slurry phase reactor and continuously performed for 300 h without noticeable loss of activity in a fixed bed reactor, displaying excellent stability. The mixed products were successfully separated by distillation, and 99.18% purity of MMAc was obtained. Therefore, the reported DMM carbonylation to MMAc process has an excellent foreground for industrial application.