Technology for producing ethylene glycol via the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate awarded a prize

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Award-winning author/source for the technology of producing ethylene glycol via the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate: China Chemical Industry News. Date: August 12, 2016. Clicks: 9. The complete process technology developed by Donghua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. for producing ethylene glycol through the hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate was recently awarded the first prize in the 2015 Anhui Provincial Science and Technology Awards. This process opens up a non-petroleum route to ethylene glycol using coal syngas as a raw material. This technology was jointly developed by Donghua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. in collaboration with Nippon Kako Kogyo Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Liansheng Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. It solved the two challenges of dimethyl oxalate hydrogenation and ethylene glycol distillation, enabling a transformation in the production process from dimethyl oxalate to ethylene glycol. This process primarily involves producing high-quality H2 and CO using devices that take coal, natural gas, coke oven gas, and calcium carbide furnace exhaust as raw materials, and then utilizing the dimethyl oxalate method to produce polyester-grade ethylene glycol. According to the person in charge of Donghua Engineering Technology Company, ethylene glycol is obtained through two-step hydrogenation of dimethyl oxalate using a Cu-SiO2 catalyst for hydrogenation. Since the reaction stops at the second step where the equilibrium constant is lowest, it is difficult to develop the hydrogenation catalyst, the hydrogenation reactor, and the related process technologies. The national standards for ethylene glycol impose strict requirements on its concentration as well as on trace impurities present in the product. It is difficult to remove pseudo-azeotropic impurities and trace impurities through distillation; however, this technology enables high yields of ethylene glycol, and polyester-grade ethylene glycol can be obtained directly through 5-column distillation, allowing for its successful application in downstream polyester manufacturing industries.