Novel Ethylene Oxide Gas Recovery System via Hydrolysis in the Dimethyl Carbonate and Monoethylene Glycol Production Process

Abstract

Dimethyl carbonate (DMC) and monoethylene glycol (MEG) have numerous potential applications in addition to their current uses. DMC and MEG are produced by the transesterification reaction of ethylene carbonate (EC) and methanol (MeOH), while EC is synthesized by reacting ethylene oxide (EO) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). The vent gas generated when EC is recovered from a flash drum contains both EO and EC. EO gas is hazardous and highly explosive, and the vent gas is therefore fed to a scrubber. The use of conventional scrubbers, however, results in issues such as the production of wastewater, the use of large quantities of water, and the loss of valuable substances. Therefore, this study proposes a novel system of converting EO and EC in vent gas into MEG. This new recovery system does not generate wastewater and produces an additional 245 tons of MEG per year, thereby increasing the potential profits of this system in comparison to conventional scrubbers. In addition, the effects of major variables on the new recovery system were analyzed to provide a guide for designing and operating such a system. Additionally, this study aids in determining the most profitable gas treatment process when designing a factory that manufactures MEG from EC.

Selective cycloaddition of ethylene oxide to CO2 within the confined space of an amino acid-based metal–organic framework

“…GC/MS analyses were performed on a spectrometer equipped with the same column as the GC and operated under the same conditions. 1 H-, 13 C and DEPT were recorded in a 300 MHz (or 400 MHz when available) instrument using CD 3 CN as the solvent unless otherwise indicated, containing TMS as an internal standard. Infrared (IR) spectra of the compounds were recorded with a spectrophotometer by impregnating the windows with a dichloromethane solution of the compound and leaving them to…”

“…4b) within the range of many homogeneous catalysts 28,29 and much lower than the best solid catalysts reported, 30 as far as we know. The desired product EC 3 is very stable under any reaction conditions employed and only partially evolves to a secondary product (entry 6), which is characterized by GC coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and 1 H, 13 C and distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer (DEPT) NMR, employing THF-d 4 as the reaction solvent without isolation, suggesting that it could be the rarely detected compound 6, the postulated intermediate in the hydrolysis of EC 3 to ethylene glycol. It can be seen that up to a 44% yield of 6 can be obtained when using up to 30 equivalents of H 2 O with respect to EO 2, without any trace of ethylene glycol or polymerized products in the reaction medium.…”

“… 12 This is particularly convenient when managing an extremely hazardous reactant such as EO. 13 However, the number of studies in the open literature dealing with solid-catalyzed cycloadditions of EO to CO 2 is scarce; there are <30 scientific open publications according to a database searching for this specific reaction, and most of them have been published in the last 10 years (see Fig. S1 in the ESI † ).…”

Sustainable Process Intensification Using Building Blocks

“…We evaluate the process economics by computing the ROI with eq . Prices of EO and EG are taken as $665/ton and $904.8/ton, respectively. 10 year linear depreciation scheme and 40% of tax rate are assumed.…”