Diethyl Sulfate Production

Product

Diethyl Sulfate. Diethyl Sulfate is one of the most commercially important dialkyl sulfates and appears as a highly toxic colorless, corrosive, oily liquid that darkens with age and has a faint peppermint odor. It is a possible mutagen and is anticipated to be a human carcinogen based on evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals, and may be associated with developing laryngeal cancer. Diethyl Sulfate can be manufactured by the addition of sulfur trioxide to dimethyl ether, by the addition of sulfuric acid to diethyl ether or ethanol, and from ethanol and sulfuryl chloride. This chemical is used as an alkylating agent, as an accelerator in the sulfation of ethylene and in some sulfonation reactions, and in the preparation of ethyl derivatives of amines, phenols, and thiols.

Raw Materials

Ethanol. Ethanol, also known as ethyl alcohol, may work as a solvent, a germicide, a fuel, and as a chemical intermediate for other organic chemicals. Currently, ethanol is mostly produced via fermentation of sugars, which can be obtained from crops, such as sugarcane and starch. However by relying on the sugar and starch content of food crops, ethanol production competes with food production. Therefore, recent research focus on the use of low-value raw materials, often deemed “waste”, to produce ethanol. That low-value feed can be biomass of lignocellulosic material found in wood, sugarcane bagasse and grain crop stubbles, or can be carbon monoxide found in waste gas streams from a range of industries. Lignocellulosic biomass could represent a new fermentable raw material if hydrolysis of this material is performed. Technological advances in this reaction still need to be achieved in order to make it economically feasible and render this usage of the agricultural residues competitive with respect to others, such as heat generation by burn.

Chlorosulfonic Acid. Chlorosulfonic acid, also known as chlorosulfuric acid and sulfurochloridic acid, is the sulfonic acid of chlorine. On a commercial scale, its production is based on reacting hydrogen chloride with a solution of sulfur trioxide in sulfuric acid. This compound is mainly used in the sulfation of alcohols, to prepare sodium alkyl sulfates. It is also employed in the production of saccharin.