Industrial Discussion on the Production of Ethylene Glycol from Methanol

Reply to 1# newhome2002: Actually, there’s no need to discuss this. The production of ethylene glycol from methanol is feasible in China as long as the MTO plants are mature and stable, and the cost of ethylene is lower than that of products obtained from naphtha cracking. The subsequent oxidation and hydration steps are part of established petrochemical processes. However, it cannot be compared with the production of ethylene glycol from ethane in the Middle East. According to economic analyses, the process of producing ethylene glycol by oxidizing and hydrating methanol through olefins might have lower costs compared to the process of producing ethylene glycol via the hydrogenation of oxalates. For discussion

This post was last edited by newhome2002 on 2011-9-10 at 15:36. Dear fellow, what I’m referring to is the latest process for directly producing ethylene glycol from methanol (in this new process, the cost of ethylene is much lower compared to the current method, which involves producing ethylene through MTO processes and then converting it into ethylene glycol through oxidation and hydration).

Reply to 3# newhome2002: I’m sorry; I don’t seem to have understood the topic clearly. As of now, I haven’t heard of any process technology for producing ethylene glycol directly from methanol, and I would like to learn more about it.

This post was last edited by Liang Peng on 2011-9-13 09:41. Currently, many domestic enterprises and universities have mastered the technology for producing ethylene glycol through coal gasification; there are already numerous pilot plants with a capacity of thousands of tons, and demonstration plants with a capacity of tens of thousands of tons are also under construction. It is said that the current technical challenge lies in the catalysts. After coal gasification, the syngas is processed through four stages – esterification, carbonylation, hydrogenation, and purification – to produce ethylene glycol, without the need to generate methanol.

I have only seen ethylene glycol produced directly from natural gas or coal (without using methanol as an intermediate)； There don’t seem to be any reports on the direct conversion of methanol into ethylene glycol in this regard.

Is the cost of producing ethylene from coal and then ethylene glycol via reoxidative hydration lower than that of producing ethylene glycol through syngas carbonylation and hydrogenation? That’s unlikely! It can be told from the investment aspect, hehe~

This post was last edited and replied to by kinge2000 on 2011-9-13 at 14:22. Reply to 7# heatwave1976: Based on calculations using Heyuan in Ningbo, East China, the cost of methanol produced from coal for methanol manufacturers in that region is approximately 2,800 yuan per ton (including taxes). This cost has already been mentioned in forums; about 1.65 tons of methanol are consumed per ton of ethylene glycol, along with around 460 Nm3 of oxygen. Through a two-stage catalytic reaction and distillation, ethylene glycol is obtained. The costs associated with auxiliary materials and energy consumption are not high, and there are also significant by-products. The investment for one ton of ethylene glycol is approximately 6,500 yuan. The hydrogenation of oxalate esters to ethylene glycol also involves a two-step catalytic reaction; in East China, the cost of producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide from coal is unlikely to be lower than 1.3 yuan/NM3 (excluding taxes), and there are high costs associated with auxiliary materials and energy consumption, as well as low yields from by-products. The investment for tonnage of ethylene glycol is also considerable; excluding the costs associated with gasification and raw material gas separation, the investment amount is around 7,000 yuan per ton, and this applies to plants with an investment scale of over 200,000 tons. Therefore, when considering the costs of both, oxalate esters may not necessarily have an advantage. Moreover, the former process is relatively mature and stable, while the latter is still under exploration – that’s the reality.

Reply to 5# Liang Peng: Research has advanced to such a level these days. The ethylene glycol project that our company has just started involves oxidation and hydration – we shouldn’t fall behind, right? Hehe

Reply to 8# kinge2000: Does Ningbo Heyuan use the methanol-to-ethylene glycol technology?

Reply to 10# heatwave1976: Ningbo Heyuan uses the DMTO process; the final products are 300,000 tons of polypropylene, 500,000 tons of ethylene glycol, and about 100,000 tons of by-products.