OXIDATION OF ETHYLENE TO ETHYLENE OXIDE

Uses

Ethylene oxide is one of the most important raw materials used in large-scale
chemical production. Most ethylene oxide is used for synthesis of ethylene glycols,
including diethylene glycol and triethylene glycol that accounts for up to 75% of
global consumption. Other important products include ethylene glycol ethers,
ethanolamines and ethoxylates. Among glycols, ethylene glycol is used
as antifreeze, in the production of polyester and polyethylene terephthalate (PET
raw material for plastic bottles), liquid coolants and solvents.

Process tehnology

Figure 17.1 Flow sheet of production of ethylene oxide

C2 H4 + 0.5 O2 CH2OCH2

Ethylene to air ratio: 3 10 %

Side reaction products:

C2 H4 + 3 O2 2 CO2 + 2 H2O

C2 H4 + C2 H4 1-Butadiene

Catalyst: Silver oxide on alumina

 Operating temperature and pressure: 250 300C and 120 300 psi

Supressing agent for side reactions: Ethylene dichloride

Reaction is exothermic

Air and ethylene are separate compressed and along with recycle stream are
sent to the shell and tube reactor.

The reactor is fed on the shell side with Dowtherm fluid that serves to maintain
the reaction temperature. A dowtherm fluid is a heat transfer fluid , which is a
mixture of two very stable compounds, biphenyl and diphenyl oxide. The fluid is
dyed clear to light yellow to aid in leak detection.

The hot dowtherm fluid from the reactor is sent to a waste heat recovery boiler to
generate steam.

The vapour stream is cooled using a integrated heat exchanger using the
unreacted vapour stream generated from an absorber.

The vapour stream is then sent to the heat integrated exchanger and is then sent
back to the reactor and a fraction of that is purged to eliminate the accumulation of
inerts such as Nitrogen and Argon.

The product vapors are compressed and sent to a water absorber which absorbs
ethylene oxide from the feed vapors. Eventually, the ethylene oxide rich water
stream is sent to a stripper which desorbs the ethylene oxide + water as vapour
and generates the regenerated water as bottom product. The regenerated water
reaches the absorber through a heat integrated exchanger.

The ethylene oxide + water vapour mixture is compressed (to about 4 - 5 atms)
and then sent to a stripper to generate light ends + H2O as a top product and the
bottom product is then sent to another fractionators to produce ethylene oxide as
top product. The heavy ends are obtained as bottom product.