To produce ethylene glycols (MEG, DEG, TEG) from ethylene oxide (EO) using Dow’s METEOR process.
In the METEOR Process, an EO/water mixture is preheated and fed directly to an adiabatic reactor (1), which can operate with or without a catalyst. An excess of water is provided to achieve high selectivities to monoethylene glycol (MEG). Diethylene (DEG) and triethylene (TEG) glycols are produced as coproducts. In a catalyzed mode, higher selectivities to MEG can be obtained, thereby reducing DEG production to one-half that produced in the uncatalyzed mode. The reactor is specially designed to fully react all of the EO and to minimize back-mixing, which promotes enhanced selectivity to MEG.
Excess water from the reactor effluent is efficiently removed in a multi-effect evaporation system (2). The last-effect evaporator overhead produces low-pressure steam, which is a good low-level energy source for other chemical units or other parts of the EO/MEG process. The concentrated water/glycols stream from the evaporation system is fed to the water column (3) where the remaining water and light ends are stripped from the crude glycols. The water-free crude glycol stream is fed to the MEG refining column (3) where polyester-grade MEG, suitable for polyester fiber and PET production, is recovered. High-purity DEG is typically recovered via the addition of a single fractionation column. TEG exiting the base of the MEG refining column can be recovered as highpurity products by subsequent fractionation.
Economics: The conversion of EO to glycols is essentially complete. The reaction not only generates the desired MEG, but also produces DEG and TEG that can be recovered as coproducts. The production of more DEG and TEG may be desirable if the manufacturer has a specific use for these products or if market conditions provide a good price for DEG and TEG relative to MEG. A catalyzed process will produce less heavy glycols. The ability to operate in catalyzed or uncatalyzed mode provides flexibility to the manufacturer to meet changing market demands.
Licensor: Union Carbide Corp., a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Co.