METHOD FOR OBTAINING ETHYLENE GLYCOL Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC C07C29/10 C07C31/20 

FIELD: chemistry.

SUBSTANCE: liquid phase process for producing ethylene glycol. Invention comprises the following steps: obtaining a water stream and an aqueous ethylene oxide feed stream; separating the aqueous ethylene oxide feed stream into at least the first equal portion and the second equal portion; combining the first portion and the water stream to form the first feed stream; feeding the first feed stream to the inlet of the first adiabatic reactor, where the inlet of the first adiabatic reactor is at the inlet temperature; reacting ethylene oxide and water in the presence of the first ion exchange resin catalyst in the first adiabatic reactor to produce the first reactor effluent containing water, ethylene glycol and unreacted ethylene oxide; removing the first reactor effluent from the outlet of the first adiabatic reactor; cooling the first reactor effluent through a heat exchanger downstream of the first adiabatic reactor to a hydration temperature; and combining the second portion and the cooled product stream to form the second feed stream; transferring the second feed stream to the inlet of the second adiabatic reactor, where the inlet of the second adiabatic reactor is at the hydrolysis temperature and causing an interaction of ethylene oxide and water contained in the second feed stream in the presence of the second catalyst based on an ion exchange resin in the second adiabatic reactor to obtain an effluent of the second reactor containing water, ethylene glycol and unreacted ethylene oxide. In this case, each of the first adiabatic reactor and the second adiabatic reactor contains a catalyst based on ion-exchange resin in a fixed catalyst bed, and the temperature at the outlet of the adiabatic reactors is higher than the inlet temperature. The total molar ratio of water:ethylene oxide in the water stream and the added aqueous ethylene oxide feed stream together is from 5:1 to 15:1.

EFFECT: development of an improved method of adiabatic catalytic hydration, in which the swelling of the catalyst is reduced, the flexibility of the method is significantly improved.

13 cl, 4 dwg, 2 ex