Hermann Staudinger (a German chemist,who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1953) obtained DMMn on a laboratory basis by heating paraformaldehyde and methanol at high temperatures in an airtight container.

Dupont reported a preparation method of DMMn (n=2--3)by using mineral acid as catalyst.

David S Moulton et al., from Southwest Research Institute, USA,reported in their patent that the methanol or methylal mixed with paraformaldehyde could be directly used as a diesel blending component (5--30%).

BP adopted polyphase catalysis technology to prepare DMMn.

China began the study,research and development on DMMn.

East China University of Science and Technology adopted acid resin catalyzing formaldehyde solution and methylal method to prepare DMMn. BASF used liquid acid catalysis technology to prepare DMMn. Tsinghua University carried out a series of studies on DMMn technology using fluidized bed reactor. China University of Petroleum developed acidic resin catalyst to synthesize DMMn by formaldehyde solution and methylal reaction.