Dimethoxymethane Production via Catalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Monoxide in Methanol Media

Dimethoxymethane (OME1) is an important chemicals and has vast applications. However, current commercial method to produce this chemical suffers high exergy loss. In this study, we demonstrate a novel one-pot approach to synthesize OME1 from syngas. OME1 was produced using Ru promoted catalyst via cascade reaction of hydrogenation of carbon monoxide into formaldehyde, followed by acetalisation with methanol in liquid media. Results show that catalytic activity of these Ru promoted catalysts in converting CO and H2 to OME1 were in the following order: Ru-Ni > Ru-Cu > Ru.