甲醛用途广泛，属生产工艺简单、原料供应充足的大众化工产品。是甲醇下游产品树中的主干，世界30%左 右的甲醇都用来生产甲醛，年产量在2500万吨左右。甲醛溶液是一种浓度较低的水溶液，从经济角度考虑不便于长距离运输，所以一般都在主消费市场附近设厂.进出口贸易也极少。工业上主要采用甲醇氧化法和天然气直接氧化法生产[4]。
Formaldehyde has a wide range of uses and is a popular chemical product with simple production processes and sufficient supply of raw materials. It is the backbone of the downstream product tree of methanol, and about 30% of the world's methanol is used to produce formaldehyde, with an annual output of about 25 million tons. Formaldehyde solution is a low concentration aqueous solution that, from an economic perspective, is not convenient for long-distance transportation, so factories are generally set up near the main consumer market. Import and export trade is also very rare. In industry, methanol oxidation method and natural gas direct oxidation method are mainly used for production.
1888年德国首先实现甲醛工业生产以来，甲醛的生产方法根据原料的不同出现了以下几种类型：以液化石油气为原料的非催化氧化法、二甲醚氧化法、甲烷氧化法、甲醇空气氧化法。1923年，德国BASF公司实现合成气大规模生产甲醇后，工业甲醛的大规模生产具备了良好的原料基础，甲醇空气氧化法成为生产工业甲醛的最常用的方法。截止2010年，工业上生产的甲醛90%以上都是以甲醇为原料，采用甲醇空气氧化法制得。甲醇空气氧化法又分为甲醇过量氧化法、空气过量氧化法，后来，为了制备高浓度甲醛、提高能量综合利用效率，又相继开发了尾气循环法、甲缩醛氧化法等。[5]
Since Germany first implemented industrial production of formaldehyde in 1888, several types of formaldehyde production methods have emerged based on different raw materials: non catalytic oxidation method using liquefied petroleum gas as raw material, dimethyl ether oxidation method, methane oxidation method, and methanol air oxidation method. In 1923, BASF, a German company, achieved large-scale production of methanol from syngas. The large-scale production of industrial formaldehyde had a good raw material foundation, and the methanol air oxidation method became the most commonly used method for producing industrial formaldehyde. As of 2010, over 90% of formaldehyde produced in industry was obtained from methanol as raw material through methanol air oxidation method. Methanol air oxidation method can be divided into methanol excess oxidation method and air excess oxidation method. Later, in order to prepare high concentration formaldehyde and improve energy comprehensive utilization efficiency, tail gas circulation method and formaldehyde oxidation method were successively developed. [5]
1、甲醇氧化法：在600~700℃下，使甲醇、空气和水通过银、铜或五氧化二矾等催化剂，直接氧化生成甲醛，用水吸收得甲醛溶液：
1. Methanol oxidation method: At 600-700 ℃, methanol, air, and water are directly oxidized to form formaldehyde through catalysts such as silver, copper, or aluminum pentoxide, and then absorbed with water to obtain a formaldehyde solution