glycol dialkyl ethers are generally manufactured in two steps. First, the monomethyl ether is converted into the alcoholate by NaOH; the water of reaction is removed by distillation:

In the second step, the sodium alcoholate is etherified with an alkyl chloride (usually methyl chloride) or dimethyl sulfate:

As this method is burdened by the stoichiometric consumption of chlorine and alkali, Hoechst has developed a new process for dimethylether in which is reacted with ethylene oxide in the presence of boron trifluoride:



This process is used commercially.