SBIR Phase I: Reactive Distillation for Vinyl Ether Synthesis

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在确定一种新技术的技术和经济可行性，该新技术利用反应蒸馏生产乙烯基醚，否则其生产会受到平衡限制和副反应的困扰。该计划将结合KSE公司的催化专业知识和马萨诸塞大学化学工程系的反应蒸馏优势来开发这项新技术。这一成果不仅将推动有机合成领域的实践，而且将为学术教学和研究提供有用的案例研究范例。首先，需要研究改进催化剂组成，以促进乙烯基醚的合成，以满足蒸馏要求。其次，必须进行实验室反应器测试，包括反应蒸馏，以指导催化剂改进并证明技术的成功。第三，需要进行设计和竞争经济分析，以完成可行性评估。拟议的研究将解决乙烯基醚合成中的一个主要问题，减少副产品和消除溶剂。它还将为反应蒸馏的实践提供有价值的教学和研究工具。反应蒸馏技术的商业应用将使乙烯基醚的生产成为有机合成的重要组成部分，消除基于二战技术的能源密集型乙炔路线。通过消除临界平衡和副产物限制，允许使用新的合成方法。

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.