US 10,308,577 B2Granted

Process for the separation of glycols

AssigneeShell Oil Company

InventorsCarmelo Perez Golf, Evert Van Der Heide, Pieter Huizenga, Kai Jurgen Fischer

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Abstract

A process for the production of high purity mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) from a product stream of a saccharide hydrogenolysis process. The process having the steps of: (i) removing solvent from the product stream to provide a solvent-lean product stream; (ii) subjecting the solvent-lean product stream to distillation to provide a bottoms stream comprising high boiling by-products and a top stream comprising a mixture comprising MEG and 1,2-butanediol (1,2-BDO); (iii) providing said mixture having MEG and 1,2-BDO as a feed to a distillation column; (iv) providing a feed comprising an extractant of C3 to C6 alcohols and mixtures thereof to the distillation column above the mixture comprising MEG and 1,2-BDO; (v) removing a stream comprising MEG and the extractant as a bottoms stream from the distillation column; and (vi) subjecting the stream comprising MEG and the extractant to distillation to provide a top stream comprising high purity MEG.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A process for the production of a high purity first diol, selected from the group consisting of C2 to C7 diols from a product stream comprising two or more C2 to C7 diols, said process comprising the steps of:

(i) subjecting the product stream to distillation in a first distillation column to provide a bottoms stream comprising high boiling by-products and a top stream comprising a mixture comprising the two or more C2 to C7 diols;
(ii) providing said mixture comprising the two or more C2 to C7 diols as a feed to a second distillation column;
(iii) providing a feed comprising an extractant to the second distillation column above the mixture comprising the two or more C2 to C7 diols;
(iv) operating the second distillation column at a temperature in the range of from 50 to 250° C. and a pressure in the range of from 0.1 to 400 kPa;
(v) removing a stream comprising the first diol and the extractant as a bottoms stream from the second distillation column;
and
(vi) subjecting the stream comprising the first diol and the extractant to distillation in a third distillation column to provide a top stream comprising the first diol in high purity, wherein the extractant is selected from the group of C3 to C6 sugar alcohols and mixtures thereof.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.