Process

• Main Authors: Adam Armour Snaith, Simon Jackson, David John Watson, Michael Anthony Wood, Michael Tuck
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 03.04.2019
• Subjects: ACYCLIC OR CARBOCYCLIC COMPOUNDS; CHEMISTRY; METALLURGY; ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

A process for the purification of ethylene glycol from a crude stream thereof, the process comprises passing the stream of crude ethylene glycol to a first distillation column 5 in which light compounds within the crude stream are separated overhead 6 and a lights-removed crude ethylene glycol stream 7 is removed from at or near the bottom of the first distillation column; passing the lights-removed crude ethylene glycol stream 7 removed from at or near the bottom of the first distillation column to a second distillation column 8 in which purified ethylene glycol 9 is separated and recovered from heavy components present in the lights-removed crude ethylene glycol stream; removing a stream 10 from at or near the bottom of the second distillation column which comprises residual ethylene glycol together with diethylene glycol and heavy compounds and passing said stream to a third distillation column 11 in which the heavy compounds are separated from the stream comprising ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol 12; and removing the stream comprising ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol from the third distillation column 13 and passing said stream to a fourth distillation column 14 in which the ethylene glycol 15 is separated from the diethylene glycol 16.