This project belongs to the field of new materials technology
Ethylene glycol is an important basic organic raw material for bulk chemical industry and is widely used. With the rapid development of my country's economy, there is a strong domestic demand for ethylene glycol products. According to statistics, my country's ethylene glycol imports in 2013 were 8.25 million tons, and the import dependence reached about 70%.
At present, the production of large-scale ethylene glycol at home and abroad adopts the ethylene oxide (EO) direct hydration method of the petroleum route. This production technology has a long process flow, large energy consumption, high water ratio (molar ratio of H2O to EO), and ethylene glycol. The selectivity is relatively low. 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". 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.
The main feature of this project 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 obtain 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 high-efficiency 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. A proprietary ethylene glycol refining technology has been developed. 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. This technology is green and environmentally friendly and will not cause environmental burden. There are three sewage outlets in the entire process: the bottom of the MN reactor is wastewater containing trace amounts of nitric acid, and the emission of EG per ton is 0.29 tons. The wastewater can be neutralized with lime and discharged to a wastewater treatment station for treatment. The purge gas from the DMO synthesis reactor mainly contains NO and a small amount of CO, MN and methanol. Catalytic reduction can be used to remove NO and CO at the same time. In particular, an automobile exhaust catalyst can be used to ensure that the exhaust gas can be well treated. The purge gas from the DMO hydrogenation reactor, which mainly contains hydrogen, can be combined into the DMO synthesis purge gas treatment unit for treatment.
   The project has applied for 11 domestic invention patents and 2 foreign invention patents, including 8 authorized patents; published 8 academic papers, one doctoral thesis and one master's thesis each, and trained three doctoral students, two master's degrees, and one scientific and technological leader.
   The project won the first prize of the 2010-2011 Songjiang District Science and Technology Progress Award; won the first prize of the 2013 Outstanding Project of Industry-University-Research Cooperation in Shanghai City; it was recognized as a high-tech achievement transformation project in Shanghai City. The project name is "Technical Service for Coal-based Syngas to Ethylene Glycol" and the certificate number is: 201112591;
   Five sets of technology for the project have been successfully transferred, earning nearly 400 million yuan in revenue. And after the normal production of the project, the sales of supporting catalysts are expected to exceed 1 billion yuan. Therefore, this project has great economic benefits.