Conversion of ethanol to formaldehyde is an eloborate process.It is best prepared from methanol.So our objective is to convert ethanol to methanol and then to formaldehyde.
First ethanol is made to react with CrO3 to get acetic acid.Acetic acid should be made to react with NaOH to get sodium acetate and we should use decarboxylation reaction on soduim acetate to get methane.After obtaining methane we should chorify it to get methylchloride .Metyhl chloride on reaction with KOH gives methanol.
We will use catalytic oxidation on methanol to obtain formaldehyde.This has to be done in presence of vanadium pentaoxide as a catalyst at the temperaure of 250-400 degree centigrade.
