SBIR Phase I: Reactive Distillation for Vinyl Ether Synthesis

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This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to establish thetechnical and economic feasibility of a novel technology to utilize reactive distillation toproduce vinyl ethers, the production of which is otherwise plagued by equilibriumlimitations and side reactions. The program will combine the catalysis expertise of KSE,Inc. with the reactive distillation strengths of the Department of Chemical Engineering ofthe University of Massachusetts, to develop the new technology. The resulting workproduct will not only advance the practice of the field of organic synthesis, but also willprovide useful case study examples for academic teaching and research.The Phase I program requires completion of three tasks. First, research is neededto improve the catalyst compositions to promote vinyl ether synthesis, to match distillationrequirements. Second, laboratory reactor tests, including reactive distillation, must beperformed to guide catalyst improvement and to demonstrate success of the technology.Third, design and competitive economic analyses are required to complete the feasibilityassessment. The proposed research will solve a major problem in vinyl ether synthesis,reducing byproducts and eliminating solvents. It will also provide valuable teaching andresearch tools for the practice of reactive distillation.Commercial applications of the reactive distillation technology will allowproduction of vinyl ethers as an important building block in organic synthesis,eliminating the energy intensive acetylene route based on World War II technology. Itallows new synthesis methods to be used, by eliminating critical equilibrium andbyproduct constraints.