The invention discloses a method and a
system for preparing
polyoxymethylene dialkyl
ether with a low
polymerization degree, and belongs to the technical field of
oxygen-containing fuels and environment-friendly solvents, the method comprises the following three core processes: P1
raw material reaction: taking
anhydrous polyoxymethylene dimethyl ether (DMM2) as a methoxy donor, and reacting with
alkyl alcohol in a
fixed bed reactor to obtain a
reaction product; carrying out a catalytic reaction through strongly acidic macroporous cation exchange resin at the
reaction temperature of 60-90 DEG C and the pressure of 0.6-0.8 MPa; a NiCu / gamma-Al2O3 catalyst is adopted in P2 hydrofining, trace
formaldehyde is reduced into
methanol, and the
formaldehyde atom
recovery rate is larger than or equal to 99%; and P3 three-
tower rectification is carried out to recover light components in sequence, unreacted DMM2 and
alkyl alcohol are circulated, and finally, methyl-
alkyl mixed terminated SPODEn and same alkyl terminated TPODEn with the
polymerization degree n being equal to 1 or 2 are obtained through separation, wherein the methyl-alkyl mixed terminated SPODEn and the same alkyl terminated TPODEn have the
polymerization degree n being equal to 1 or 2. A whole-course
anhydrous system is constructed, water-
alcohol azeotropy is avoided, and the comprehensive
utilization rate of raw materials is larger than or equal to 95%; the product purity is greater than or equal to 98%, the
energy consumption is reduced by more than 30% compared with the traditional process, and the method has excellent performances of high
cetane number, low
condensation point and the like, can be widely applied to the fields of diesel oil blending, environment-friendly solvents and the like, and is suitable for industrial large-scale production.