Formaldehyde Production Technology

Formaldehyde HCHOis a basic chemical raw material widely used in resin,

plastic, leather, paper and fiber production. Thus, it plays a very important role in
humans production and life.
Due to a group of well-known senior engineers continuous exploration and
innovation, Jiangsu Hengmao Machinery Manufacture Co., Ltd. has developed a
series of formaldehyde processes based on the traditional production process, such as
off- gas circulation process, low conversion methanol- free process, flue gas circulation
process and the newest formaldehyde process (Hengmao Process). These processes
have created a new route for formaldehyde production, and thus Hengmao has taken a
leading position in Chinese formaldehyde industry.













Formaldehyde Production Process
1. Off gas circulation process
The traditional formaldehyde production process involves methanol evaporation,
mixing gas heating, filtration, fire retardant, methanol oxidation to give
formaldehyde(gas), and formaldehyde(gas) absorption to obtain 37% product.
Nowadays more and more formaldehyde producing enterprises wish to increase
formaldehyde concentration with the development of formaldehyde down stream
products, and the requirement of energy saving and emission reduction. Therefore, tail
gas circulation process was developed. In this process, tail gas instead of steam vapor
is used to reduce the steam feed and water content, thus ensuring the relatively high
concentration formaldehyde(around 45%). Furthermore, the amount of byproduct
steam is also improved.

Flow Diagram of Off-Gas Circulation Process






2. Incomplete Conversion Process
In the traditional methanol oxidation process, CO
2
and CO are easy to be yielded
as byproducts because of the high temperature (about 650). These byproducts,
coupled with 1% methanol residue of the final formaldehyde product, increase
methanol consumption. Incomplete conversion process is to lower reaction
temperature, decrease side reactions occurrence, and recover the non-reacted
methanol by distillation. So methanol consumption can be decreased, and meanwhile
methanol concentration can be increased.


Flow Diagram of Incomplete Conversion Process
3. Flue Gas Circulation Process
Besides CO
2
COCH
4
CH
3
OH and CH
2
O, the tail gas contains 18-20%
hydrogen. Hydrogen will cause side reactions such as consuming O
2
to form H
2
O and
consuming methanol to form CH
4
in the oxidation process. Also the existing of
hydrogen will inhibit de-hydrogen reaction, and increase methanol consumption.
Given these reasons, we developed Flue Gas Circulation Process.
Since the main compositions of flue gas (including N
2
, CO
2
and other inert
gases ) are non-reactive and can inhibit the formation of CO
2,
CO, CH
4
and HCOOH,
this process enables less byproducts(i.e., CO
2
2.2-2.8%CO 0.1-0.3%CH
4
0.1-0.2%)
and less methanol consumption (i.e., 8-10kg/t methanol can be saved). Meanwhile,
the 5-10% excess oxygen of flue gas can result in an increase of formaldehyde output
by 10-20% and steam(byproduct) output by 10%. Also power consumption can be
decreased by 4-6KWh/t.
The comparison of flue gas circulation process with other processes
No. Name Unit
Traditional
Process
Tail Gas
Circulation
Process
Low
Conversion,
Methanol
Free Process
Flue Gas
Circulation
Process
The Newest
Process

1
Q
u
a
l
i
t
y

Formaldehy
de
% 37 37-45 37-45 37-50 37-50
Methanol % 1-2 1 0.5 0.5 0.2
Formic Acid % 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
2
C
o
n
s
u
m
p
t
i
o
n

Methanol Kg/t 450 445 440 440 436
Circulation
Water
t/t 70 50 50 50 50
Power Kwh/t 28 30 27-28 30 30


3
P
r
o
c
e
s
s

S
p
e
c
.

Oxygen/Met
hanol Ratio
mol 0.38-0.41 0.38-0.45 0.35-0.38 0.38-0.43 0.38-0.41
Oxidation
Tem.
640-660 640-660 600-630 620-640 610-640
Convert
Ratio
low
Relatively
Good
Lowest High High
Safety Good Good Good Good Good
4 Inlet Steam Kg/t 330-350 400-550 330-450 500-650 500-650
5
Heat
Comprehensive
Utilization
Poor
Relatively
Good
Relatively
Good
Good Good




Flow Diagram of Flue Gas Circulation
As mentioned above, Flue Gas Circulation Process is superior to other processes
and deserves to be promoted. Jiangsu Hengmao has a group of engineers and
technicians, who are specialized in this process. We are qualified to undertake turnkey
EPC projects including engineering design, fabrication, installation, commissioning
and startup.
4. The Newest Formaldehyde Production Process (Hengmao Process)
Both Tail Gas Circulation Process and Low Conversion, Methanol Free Process
are developed based on the traditional process, i.e., methanol evaporationover
heatingfiltrationoxidation1# absorption tower2# absorption tower
3# absorption towertail gas incineration. They require long flow, overmany
equipments, high consumption, and large site area. In view of these facts, Hengmao
Company has developed the newest formaldehyde production process with
proprietary intellectual property right. Three sets of equipment
(EvaporationOxidationAbsorption) are designed to replace the traditional
equipments, thus ensuring shorter process flow, less land coverage and low
investment; furthermore, high concentration formaldehyde with low content of
methanol can be gained.
Hengmao Process and its Features:
This process involves air scrubber to ensure the cleanness of raw material gas.
(Clean air helps to decrease system resistance, increase electrolytic silver efficiency,
and therefore strengthen formaldehyde capacity.) The scrubbed clean air, coupled with
methanol, air, steam and tail gas (flue gas), is sent by blower to the evaporator in fixed
proportion, which is a combined and integrating equipment of evaporation, mixing,
over-heating, and filtration. After being blended uniformly, the gas mixture is fed to
the oxidation reactor.
Oxygen in the air reacts with methanol to form formaldehyde in the oxidation
reactor under silver catalyst; while the steam and tail gas (flue gas) is to take away the
generated heat. A heat exchanging section is set in the oxidation reactor to:
a. Increase vapor amount to recover more steam.
b. Increase outlet temperature of oxidation reactor and thus produce high
concentration formaldehyde with low methanol content.
An absorption tower is divided into distillation section and absorption section to
produce concentration and temperature gradients, which avoid formaldehyde
polymerization, help to yield high concentration formaldehyde, and allow methanol
recovery.
The final tail gas is sent to the incinerator for burning. After incineration, the
obtained flue gas is cooled down and returns to evaporator as heat transfer medium.
This process enables high heat utilization efficiency:
Salt free water can be replenished into the combined evaporator to reduce
feeding steam consumption.
The heat of circulated formaldehyde in absorption tower can be used for
evaporating methanol so that steam can be saved.
Combined Evaporator can greatly shorten the distance between
evaporator and oxidation reactor; therefore, equipment arrangement will be
tighter and heat loss will be reduced.
The emission gas from incinerator can be employed to preheat boiler water
or air; byproduct steam can be sent out for other uses.

Flow Diagram of the Newest Formaldehyde Process (Hengmao Process)






30000t/a Formaldehyde Plant



80000t/a Formaldehyde Plant
80000t/a Formaldehyde Project








60000t/a Formaldehyde Plant 25000t/a Formaldehyde Plant







40000t/a Formaldehyde Plant 50000t/a Formaldehyde Plant









50000t/a Formaldehyde Plant 30000t/a Formaldehyde Plant










50000t/a Formaldehyde Plant 75000t/a Formaldehyde Plant