Dimethoxymethane Production via Catalytic Hydrogenation of Carbon Monoxide in Methanol Media

Dimethoxymethane (OME1) is an important chemical and has vast applications. However, the current commercial method to produce this chemical suffers high exergy loss. In this study, we demonstrate a one-pot approach to synthesize OME1 from syngas. OME1 was produced using a Ru promoted catalyst via a cascade reaction of hydrogenation of carbon monoxide into formaldehyde, followed by acetalization with methanol in liquid media. Results show that the catalytic activity of these Ru promoted catalysts in converting CO and H-2 to OME1 was in the following order: Ru-Ni > Ru-Cu > Ru.