Method for producing monoethylene glycol

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for producing monoethylene glycol, which is a method for producing ethylene glycol that comprises a carbonation step in which ethylene oxide is allowed to react with carbon dioxide in the presence of a carbonation catalyst thereby effecting formation of a reaction solution containing ethylene carbonate, a hydrolysis step in which the reaction solution is converted into an ethylene glycol aqueous solution by hydrolyzing ethylene carbonate in the reaction solution and a distillation step in which purified ethylene glycol and a catalyst solution containing the carbonation catalyst are obtained from the ethylene glycol aqueous solution by distillation, wherein the improvement resides in that the reaction is carried out in the presence of a carbonation catalyst using a bubble column reactor by supplying ethylene oxide, carbon dioxide and water into the reactor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.