Continuous process for the hydrolysis of benzal chloride to benzaldehyde in a micro-channel reactor

With the catalysis of hydrochloric acid,benzaldehyde was continuously synthesized from benzal chloride in a micro-channel reactor.The effects of temperature,catalyst starting concentration,reactant mole ratio,and residence time on the hydrolysis reaction were investigated.At optimized reaction condition i.e.,20% catalyst starting concentration,140 ℃,n(hydrochloric acid)∶n(benzal chloride)=15∶1 and residence time of 370 s,the conversion of hydrolysis of benzal chloride reaches 69.2%,with a benzaldehyde selectivity(GC) beyond 99.9%.Compared to traditional industrial techniques,this makes the process continuously and time effectively.With hydrochloric acid as the catalyst,it avoided the pollution to final product caused by traditional metal catalyst residues.