Process for formaldehyde manufacture

A process for the production of formaldehyde from methanol comprising the steps of:

• feeding to a reactor a feed stream comprising the methanol and an oxygen-containing gas;
• reacting the methanol in the gas phase with the oxygen-containing gas in the reactor in the presence of a catalyst comprising oxides of iron and molybdenum;
• and
• recovering a formaldehyde reactor outlet stream comprising formaldehyde and carbon monoxide from the reactor;
• wherein the catalyst comprises copper in an amount of at least 0.025 wt % of the catalyst.

A process for the production of formaldehyde from methanol comprising the steps of:

• feeding to a reactor a feed stream comprising the methanol and an oxygen-containing gas;
• reacting the methanol in the gas phase with the oxygen-containing gas in the reactor in the presence of a catalyst comprising oxides of iron and molybdenum and copper in an amount of at least 0.025 wt % of the catalyst;
• and
• recovering a formaldehyde reactor outlet stream from the reactor, the formaldehyde reactor outlet stream comprising formaldehyde and carbon monoxide,
• wherein the methyl formate loss is reduced such that the molar ratio of methyl formate to formaldehyde in the formaldehyde reactor outlet stream is at least 0.01% less than the molar ratio of methyl formate to formaldehyde in the formaldehyde reactor outlet stream in the same process using a catalyst containing essentially no copper.