Formox process: Direct oxidation of methanol to formaldehyde
using metal oxide catalysts
Silver catalyst process: oxidation - dehydrogenation using
silver catalyst either the complete coversion or incomplete
coversion of methanol
- The process from Formox is highyl exothermic. hence, more
cooling water circulation is required -> this requires more heat
exchanger installation -> capital cost increases
- This process requires much larger equipment than the silver
catalyst due to increased gas flowrates compared to silver catalyst
process. This increase in flowrate of gases is due to the huge
amount excess air required for the oxidation process when using
metal oxide catalyst. This increases equipment size so drastically
making the capital costs very high