Chapter 10 Industrial Application of Co Chemistry for The Production of Specialty Chemicals

Abstract

Carbon monoxide being one of the feedstocks of many industrially applied processes is readily available. This chapter focuses on the conversion of carbon monoxide to a variety of chemical products, which are very often used in subsequent chemical and petrochemical processes. The CO-consuming processes include carbonylation of methanol to acetic acid, synthesis of acetic anhydride by carbonylation of methyl acetate, synthesis of acetaldehyde and ethanol, and synthesis of vinyl acetate. Most of these CO conversion processes have been put into practice and play an important role in industry. Methanol formed with high selectivity from syngas can be used as feedstock for the production of a variety of industrially important oxygen containing chemicals by carbonylation and reductive or oxidative carbonylation, thus leading to the formation of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, ethanol, acetaldehyde, vinyl acetate, propionic acid, esters of acetic acid, and glycol. Acetic acid is mainly used for the production of vinyl acetate, cellulose acetate, acetic anhydride, acetyl chloride, and solvent acetates.