Chinese Academy of Sciences

Weiguo Cheng

Suojiang Zhang

Jian Qiao Sun

Li Dong

Junping Zhang

Jianxin Zhang

Xiangping Zhang

Qian Su

Jinquan Wang

Zengzeng Fu

Songsong Chen

A system and a process for co-producing dimethyl carbonate and ethylene glycol. The system comprises an interconnected ethylene carbonate preparation unit and an ethylene carbonate alcoholysis unit. The ethylene carbonate preparation unit comprises a fixed bed reactor and a light-component stripping column connected to each other. The fixed bed reactor is filled with a supported ionic liquid catalyst. The process comprises the steps of: reacting carbon dioxide and ethylene oxide as raw materials in the fixed bed reactor to produce ethylene carbonate, purifying the ethylene carbonate and then mixing it with an alcoholysis reaction catalyst, and reacting the mixture with methanol in a reactive distillation tower, producing dimethyl carbonate and ethylene glycol. The process increases the conversion rate of ethylene oxide and avoids the need for a process of separating conventional homogeneous catalysts from ethylene carbonate, thereby reducing process energy consumption and simplifying process procedures.

System and process for co-producing dimethyl carbonate and ethylene glycol

Disclosed is a process for producing ethylene glycol catalyzed by an ionic liquid, characterized in that the process includes the following three steps: (a) a carbonylation step of ethylene oxide and COcatalyzed by an ionic liquid composite catalyst comprising a hydroxyl functionalized ionic liquid and an alkali metal salt under an aqueous condition to produce ethylene carbonate and ethylene glycol; (b) a hydrolysis step of reacting the reaction solution containing ethylene carbonate and the ionic liquid composite catalyst obtained in step (a) with water to produce ethylene glycol; (c) a purification step of dehydrating and refining ethylene glycol from the aqueous solution containing ethylene glycol and the catalyst produced in step (b). The present process has the following advantages: the catalyst has high activity, high suitability, and good stability, the reaction condition is wild, the conversion of ethylene oxide is high, the selectivity of ethylene glycol is high, and the process is simple.

Process for producing ethylene glycol catalyzed by ionic liquid

Growing community of inventors

Beijing, China

Weiguo Cheng