Chinese Academy of Sciences

Zengzeng Fu

Jian Qiao Sun

Suojiang Zhang

Weiguo Cheng

Xiangping Zhang

Jianxin Zhang

Jinquan Wang

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.

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Beijing, China

Zengzeng Fu