Breakthrough achieved in China’s technology for producing ethylene glycol from industrial exhaust gases

Thread Content

The last edit to this post was made by jordan569 on 2013-1-6 at 21:05. Reporters learned from the Southwest Chemical Engineering Research and Design Institute that the \"technology for recycling and utilizing industrial waste gases to produce ethylene glycol\" developed by the institute has recently passed an expert evaluation organized by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Science and Technology. The new technology not only opens up new raw material pathways for ethylene glycol production, reducing investment by 30%, but also effectively addresses the pollution problem caused by industrial exhaust gases; it is now ready for full-scale industrial application. Since 1986, the Southwest Institute of Chemical Engineering has been the first in China to conduct research on the technology for producing ethylene glycol from syngas, and it has undertaken the key project under the 11th Five-Year Plan’s Science and Technology Support Program, titled “Development of Key Technologies for Producing Bulk Chemicals via Non-petroleum Routes”. Through 25 years of relentless effort, researchers have successively completed the integrated development of the key catalysts and related processes for this technology; two core catalysts with industrial application value were developed, enabling long-term operation of over 6,000 hours at a conversion rate of 100% and a selectivity of 90% ； By eliminating the complex \"gasification\" equipment and processes, methanol consumption is reduced by 0.16 tons per ton of product, and steam consumption is reduced by 2.5 tons per ton of product ； Five key process technologies have been developed, including those for hydrogenation reactors and the purification of polyester-grade ethylene glycol products; to date, 4 **patents have been obtained. Experts say that compared with traditional petroleum-based and coal-based methods for producing ethylene glycol, the new technology that uses industrial exhaust gases such as those from yellow phosphorus production or calcium carbide furnaces to manufacture ethylene glycol has a cost of only 4,000 yuan per ton, saving 3,500 yuan and 1,000 yuan respectively. From the perspective of environmental benefits, assuming that 1 million tons of yellow phosphorus are produced in China each year, it is possible to reduce emissions by 3,750 tons of phosphides, 7,500 tons of sulfides, 200 tons of arsenides, and 1,250 tons of fluorides per year. As a solvent, antifreeze, and key raw material for synthesizing polyester, ethylene glycol will have an annual production capacity of 4.5 million tons in China by the end of this year, with consumption reaching 8 million tons per year. If the gap of nearly 4 million tons in production capacity is filled by using industrial emission gases as raw materials for production, it would save over $3 billion in foreign exchange each year, while also reducing ethylene consumption by more than 2 million tons. http://www.cas.cn/xw/kjsm/gndt/201112/t20111213_3411938.shtml. Note: # ) # # , . hcbbs