The composition of the distillate removed from the conversion products is biased towards acetate at atmospheric pressure and ethanol at increased pressure. First, the raw product is fed into a high pressure column where the bulk of the contaminating ethanol is removed.
Industrially, ethyl acetate can be produced by the catalytic dehydrogenation of ethanol. For cost reasons, this method is primarily applied to conversion of surplus ethanol feedstock as opposed to predetermined generation on an industrial scale. In addition, it is commonly accepted as far less practical and less cost effective.
Ethyl acetate is primarily used as a solvent. For example, it is commonly used to dissolve the pigments for nail varnishes, and is responsible for the solvent-effect of some nail varnish remover (acetone and acetonitrile are also used.
Ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and in thermometers. In common usage, it is often referred to simply as alcohol.
Formaldehyde is a chemical compound with the formula H2CO. It is the simplest aldehyde—an organic compound containing a terminal carbonyl group: it consists of exactly one carbonyl. It was first synthesized by the Russian chemist Aleksandr Butlerov (1828-1886), but was conclusively identified by August Wilhelm von Hofmann.[1]
Formaldehyde is an intermediate in the oxidation (or combustion) of methane as well as other carbon compounds, e.g. forest fires, in automobile exhaust, and in tobacco smoke. It is produced in the atmosphere by the action of sunlight and oxygen on atmospheric methane and other hydrocarbons; thus, it becomes part of smog.
Toluene occurs naturally at low levels in crude oil and is usually produced in the processes of making gasoline via a catalytic reformer, in an ethylene cracker or making coke from coal. Final separation (either via distillation or solvent extraction) takes place in a BTX plant.
Toluene reacts as a normal aromatic hydrocarbon towards electrophilic aromatic substitution.[3][4][5] The methyl group makes it around 25 times more reactive than benzene in such reactions. It undergoes smooth sulfonation to give p-toluenesulfonic acid, and chlorination by Cl2 in the presence of FeCl3 to give ortho and para isomers of chlorotoluene.
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