Improving production processes and reducing production costs is the key to the development of the pivalic acid industry

Pivalic acid, also known as pivalic acid and trimethylacetic acid, is a white solid at room temperature, with a melting point of 35.5°C, a boiling point of 163.7°C, a relative density (50°C) of 0.905, and a refractive index (36.5°C) of 2.393. Pivalic acid is easily soluble in alcohol and ether and is corrosive. Pivalic acid has a wide range of applications. It can be used as a pesticide intermediate to synthesize pinacol, and can also be used to produce coatings, lubricants, etc. also. Pivaloyl chloride synthesized from pivalic acid has an aromatic smell and can be used in industrial fragrances.

The tertiary carbon atoms of pivalic acid are connected with the carbonyl group to form a stable structure, which gives pivalic acid special performance in terms of physical and chemical properties, making it widely used; however, the special structure also makes the preparation process of pivalic acid It is more complicated. There are more than ten methods for the synthesis of pivalic acid recorded in the literature, but the currently used methods mainly include: Koch method, Reppe method, reaction method of isobutanol and formic acid, haloform reaction method of methyl tert-butyl ketone, etc. . Although there are many methods for synthesizing pivalic acid, most of them have complex reactions and high production costs, which limit the industrial development of the pivalic acid production process. Therefore, the method currently used in industrial production is mainly the Koch method.

At this stage, China’s pivalic acid industry is subject to technical limitations, high production costs, and weak competitiveness among companies in the industry, resulting in an overall weak operating rate in the industry. At this stage, due to the increasing pressure on environmental protection, the operating rate of enterprises in China’s pivalic acid industry is low, and some enterprises have been shut down for a long time. Pivalic acid products need to be imported.

According to the “2022-2026 China Pivalic Acid Project Investment Feasibility Research Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, currently China’s special Valeric acid products are basically not exported. The consumption of pivalic acid in 2021 will be about 20,000 tons, and consumer demand has maintained a rapid growth of about 10% in the past few years. Pivalic acid is widely used downstream, and the potential growth rate of future demand will also grow rapidly. However, under the pressure of environmental protection in the domestic market, the operating rate of enterprises is low. It is estimated that in 2023, there will be a gap of about 10,000 tons of domestic pivalic acid products. This gap will be met through imports.

Industry analysts said that due to the current relatively backward technical level of the pivalic acid industry and high product production costs, it is restricted to a certain extent. The industrial development of pivalic acid industry. In the future, improving product production processes, increasing catalyst recovery efficiency, and reducing pivalic acid production costs will help enhance the market competitiveness of the pivalic acid industry. It is an important development direction for the pivalic acid industry in the future, and is also an important step in improving domestic pivalic acid products. The key to supply capacity.