Ethylene glycol process
AssigneeMitsubishi Chemical Corporation
InventorsKazuki Kawabe, Kazuhiko Murata, deceased, Toshiyuki Furuya
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a process for producing ethylene glycol from ethylene oxide wherein ethylene oxide in a gas resulting from oxidation of ethylene is absorbed in a specific absorbing solution, is allowed to react with carbon dioxide, converted into ethylene carbonate, and then subjected to hydrolysis to produce ethylene glycol. According to the present invention, a large energy consuming step such as stripping of ethylene oxide and separation of excess amounts of water during the ethylene glycol production becomes unnecessary and the process can be greatly simplified by combining the ethylene oxide absorption step and the carbonation step.
Claims9
A process for producing ethylene glycol from ethylene oxide without employing a scrubbing or stripping ethylene oxide step, comprising the steps of:
- a. directly absorbing ethylene oxide in a gas formed by oxidation of ethylene in an absorbing solution mainly containing ethylene carbonate and ethylene glycol without scrubbing and stripping ethylene oxide,
- b. reacting the ethylene oxide in the absorbing solution with carbon dioxide in the presence of a carbonation catalyst to convert ethylene oxide to ethylene carbonate,
- c. subjecting a part of ethylene carbonate to hydrolysis in the presence of a hydrolytic catalyst to form a hydrolysate containing ethylene glycol and allowing the remaining ethylene carbonate to recycle as the absorbing solution, and
- d. recovering the ethylene glycol from the hydrolysate by distillation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.