This project belongs to the field of coal chemical technology.
Ethylene glycol is an important basic organic raw material for bulk chemical industry and is widely used. At present, the production of large-scale ethylene glycol at home and abroad adopts the direct hydration process of ethylene oxide on the petroleum route. This production technology has a long process flow, high energy consumption, high water ratio, and relatively low selectivity for ethylene glycol. The economic benefits of this production process are greatly affected by crude oil prices. In today's context of oil scarcity and high crude oil prices, it is necessary to seek alternative routes for raw materials and open up new ethylene glycol production routes starting from coal with relatively abundant resources.
Against the above background, our company has developed a process technology that uses coal-based syngas as raw material and dimethyl oxalate as an intermediate to finally obtain ethylene glycol products based on my country's basic national conditions of "lean in oil, less gas and rich in coal". The main feature of this technology is that dimethyl oxalate (DMO) is used as the basic intermediate, synthesis gas is coupled through oxidative carbonylation to produce DMO, and then the DMO is hydrogenated to produce ethylene glycol (EG). Therefore, the entire process is divided into two sections, namely, the DMO section for making DMO from CO; and the EG section for making EG from DMO hydrogenation. Key innovative technologies with well-known intellectual property rights are as follows:

1. The developed tubular carbonylation reactor has reasonable design, easy heat transfer, and smooth and reliable reaction process. The developed carbonylation catalyst has good stability, strong hydrogen tolerance, high reaction activity and selectivity. The one-way conversion of methyl nitrite is>80%, and the selectivity of dimethyl oxalate is>98.0%. The catalyst can meet the requirements of industrial production.
2. A new type of tubular hydrogenation reactor and a new type of chromium-free efficient hydrogenation catalyst have been developed. The catalyst has good stability, high reaction activity and selectivity, and can be suitable for reaction conditions with low hydrogen-ester ratio. The conversion of dimethyl oxalate is>99.9%, the selectivity of ethylene glycol is>95.0%, and the space-time yield of ethylene glycol is>400g/h.kg of catalyst. The catalyst can meet the requirements of industrial production.
3. Developed a proprietary ethylene glycol refining technology. The purity of the product ethylene glycol can reach 99.85%, and the ultraviolet transmittance at 220nm is 81.3%. Ethylene glycol products meet the requirements of national standard GB/T4649-2008 premium products.
   4, the technology is green and environmental protection, will not cause environmental burden. Through the optimization of the methyl nitrite regeneration system and the development of purge gas treatment technology, the wastewater and waste gas of this process have met the emission standards.
   The project has 10 authorized invention patents, applied for 2 foreign invention patents, and is now in the open stage; published 14 academic papers; trained 2 doctors, 6 masters, and 1 scientific and technological leader.
   The project won the first prize of the 2010-2011 Songjiang District Science and Technology Progress Award; in 2011, it was identified as a Shanghai City High-tech Achievements Transformation Project; in early 2012, it passed the expert appraisal meeting organized by the "China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation." Experts agreed that the technology is highly innovative and has generally reached the international advanced level. Won the first prize in the 2013 Outstanding Project of Industry-University-Research Cooperation in Shanghai City;
   The project technology has been successfully authorized to transfer five sets of total production capacity of 1.6 million tons/year. The single line of the 600,000-ton/year ethylene glycol plant of Yili Resources Group Ordos City Xinhang Energy Co., Ltd., which has been licensed by our company, has been successfully put into operation in one go. The device is running stably and produces high-grade ethylene glycol products.
   The authorized transfer of the project's technology has generated revenue of nearly 400 million yuan. Three sales contracts have been signed for supporting catalysts, and the revenue is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan. After the normal production of the project technology, the demand for catalysts will continue to increase, so the project has very good economic benefits.
   Compared with existing petroleum route technologies, this technology has significant advantages in terms of raw material costs and energy consumption. This project is in line with my country's basic national conditions of "more coal and less oil" and plays a positive role in alleviating the shortage of my country's petroleum resources, and at the same time greatly promotes the development of my country's coal chemical technology.