Published October 1975
Ethylene glycol is produced commercially almost exclusively by the hydration of ethylene oxide. This process was discussed in Process Economics Program Report No. 70, issued in 1971.
Since that time there has been patent activity on several new processes for ethylene glycol, particularly by Halcon Internation, Kuraray Company, and Union Carbide. None of these processes uses ethylene oxide. The available information on these processes as of mid-1975 is reviewed in this report. Process designs and economics are developed insofar as possible from the data published to date, and costs are compared with updated figures for the conventional ethylene oxide route.
PEP subscribers have been kept informed on the progress of our work on ethylene glycol by the issuance of Process Economics Reviews Nos. IX-2-4, IX-3-3, X-2-B, and X-3-3. All of these are superseded by the current report, which presents more complete technical information as well as latest economic figures.
