Synthesis Of Methyl Acrylate Via Acetylene Carbonylation

Although propylene oxidation plays a leading role in acrylate production, its output cost is going up for rising prices of petroleum and propylene recently. Due to China's abundance in coal mine and natural gas, coal chemical industry's prosperity and rapid development in acetylene manufacturing from coal and natural gas, it is more favorable to synthesize methyl acrylate via acetylene carbonylation with coal and natural gas than propylene oxidation in economy and theory. Different kinds of heterogeneous co-catalyst are carefully investigated to improve catalysis performance, among which nickel acetylacetonate is the best one. Reaction conditions have great influence on acetylene carbonylation, such as concentration of co-catalyst, pressure, temperature and reaction time. The most favorable conditions gained are as follows:m(nickel acetylacetonate)/m(methanol)=8%,185℃,6MPa,2h. Conversion of acetylene, selectivity and yield of methyl acrylate are 97.26%,91.63% and 89.12% respectively. Separation of methanol and methyl acrylate via ordinary distillation and azeotropic distillation is calculated by Aspen Plus and high purity methyl acrylate could be obtained.