Calcium carbide is a major coal-derived platform chemical with annual production of more than 15 Mt in China alone.It is used to generate acetylene

upon reacting with water

to start production of many commodity chemicals

such as vinyl chloride and vinyl acetic acid.Reactions of calcium carbide with alcohols were reported decades ago but received little attention.With the production of low cost alcohols from coal

natural gas as well as biomass

these reactions may become more important in the future.In this paper

reactions of calcium carbide individually with three alcohols

methanol

ethanol and isopropanol

at various temperatures and time in the presence and absence of a catalyst were studied batch-wise in a stirred autoclave.The products were analyzed with gas chromatography

mass spectroscopy

X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy.The products mainly included acetylene

vinyl ethers

calcium alkoxides

and higher alcohols from decomposition of calcium alkoxides.One of the reaction pathway involved formation of acetylene and calcium alkoxides in the first step

reaction of acetylene with alcohols to produce vinyl ethers in the second step

and decomposition of calcium alkoxides to higher alcohols.